I. IN the army of Philip there were various nations, and after his death
different feelings prevailed among them. Some, oppressed with an unjust yoke,
were excited with hopes of recovering their liberty; others, from dislike of
going to war in a distant country, rejoiced that the expedition was broken off;
others grieved that the torch, kindled at the daughter's nuptials, should have
been applied to the funeral pile of the father. It was no small fear, too, that
possessed his friends on so sudden a change, contemplating at one time Asia that
|91 had been provoked, at another Europe
1 that was not yet pacified, at another
the Illyrians, Thracians, Dardanians, and other barbarous nations, who were of
wavering faith and perfidious dispositions, and whom, if they should all rebel
at once, it would be utterly impossible to resist.

To all these apprehensions the succession of Alexander was a relief, who, in
a public assembly, so effectually soothed and encouraged the people, as to
remove all uneasiness from those that were afraid, and to fill every one with
favourable expectations. He was now twenty years old; at which age he gave great
promise of what he would be, but with such modesty, that it was evident he
reserved the further proofs of his ability for the time of action. He granted
the Macedonians relief from all burdens, except that of service in war; by which
conduct he gained such popularity with his subjects, that they said they had
changed only the person, not the virtues, of their king.

II. His first care was about his father's funeral, when he caused all who had
been privy to his murder to be put to death at his burial-place. The only one
that he spared was Alexander Lyncestes 2 his brother, preserving in him the man
who had first acknowledged his royal authority, for he had been the first to
salute him king. His brother Caranus, 3 a rival for the throne, as being the
son of his step-mother, he ordered to be slain.

In the beginning of his reign he put down many tribes that were revolting,
and quelled some seditions in their birth. Encouraged by his success, he marched
with haste into Greece, where, after his father's example, having summoned the
states to meet at Corinth, he was appointed general in his room. He then turned
his attention to the war with Persia, of which a commencement had been made by
Philip; but, as he was engaged in preparations for it, he received intelligence
that "the Thebans and Athenians had gone over from his side to that of the
Persians, and that the author of the defection was the orator Demosthenes, who
had been bribed by |92 the Persians with
a large sum of money, and who had asserted that the whole army of the
Macedonians, with their king, had been cut off by the Triballi, producing the
author of the information before an assembly of the people, a man who said that
he had been wounded in the battle in which the king had fallen. In consequence
of which statement," it was added, "the feelings of almost all the
cities were changed, and the garrisons of the Macedonians besieged." To
repress these commotions, he marched upon Greece with an army in full array, and
with such expedition, that they could scarcely believe they saw him of whose
approach they were so little aware.

III. In the course of his march he had exhorted the Thessaiians to
peace, reminding them of the kindnesses 4 shown them
by his father Philip, and of his mother's connexion with them by the family of
the Aeacidae. 5 The Thessalians gladly listening to
such an address, he was chosen, like his father, captain-general of the whole
nation, and they resigned into his hand all their customs and public revenues.
The Athenians, as they had been the first to rebel, were also the first to
repent of their rebellion, turning their contempt for their enemy into
admiration of him, and extolling the youth of Alexander, which they had
previously despised, above the merits of old generals. Sending ambassadors,
therefore, they deprecated war; and Alexander, listening to their eiir treaties,
and severely reproving them for their conduct, laid aside hostilities against
them. He then directed his march towards Thebes, intending to show similar
indulgence, if he found similar penitence. But the Thebans had recourse, not to
prayers or in treaties, but to arms, and, being conquered, suffered the severest
hardships of the most wretched state of subjugation. It being debated in a
council of war whether the city should be destroyed, the Phocians, Plataeans,
Thespians, and Orchomenians, who were the allies of Alexander and sharers in his
victory, dwelt upon the destruction of their own cities and the cruelty of the
Thebans, urging against |93 them not
only their present, but former, defection to the Persians, to the prejudice of
the common liberty of Greece; "on which account," they said,
"they were an object of general hatred, as was manifest from the fact that
all the Greeks' had bound themselves by an oath to demolish Thebes as soon as
they had conquered the Persians." They brought forward also the fabulous
accounts of their old crimes, with which they had filled every theatre, to make
them odious not only for their recent perfidy, but for their ancient infamy.

IV. Cicadas, one of those who had been taken prisoners, being
permitted to speak in their behalf, said, that "they had not revolted from
the king, whom they understood to be killed, but from the king's heirs; that
what had been done in the matter was the fault, not of treachery, but of
credulity;6 for which, however, they had already
suffered severely by the loss of the flower of their soldiery; that there was
left them only a multitude of old men and women, equally weak and harmless, but
who had been so harassed by contumelies and insults, that they had never endured
anything more grievous; and that he did not now intercede for his countrymen, of
whom so few survived, but for their unoffending natal soil, and for a city which
had given birth, not only to men, but to gods." 7
He endeavoured to work upon the king, too, from his superstitious regard for
Hercules, who had been born at Thebes, and from whom the family of the Aeacidae
was descended, and from the reflection that the youth of his father Philip had;
been spent at Thebes; and he conjured him "to spare a city which adored
some of his ancestors, who had been born in it, as gods, and saw others who had
been brought up in it, princes of the highest dignity." But resentment was
more powerful than entreaty. The city was in consequence demolished, the lands
divided among the conquerors, and theprisoners publicly sold, their
price being settled not for the profit of those who bought them, but according
to the hatred of their enemies. 8 Their fate seemed
to the Athenians |94
deserving of pity; and they therefore, though contrary to the king's
prohibition, opened their gates for the reception of the exiles. At this
proceeding Alexander was so displeased, that when they deprecated war by a
second embassy, he forbore from hostilities only on condition that their orators
and leaders, through confidence in whom they had so often rebelled, should be
delivered up to him. The Athenians preparing to comply, lest they should be
compelled to abide a war, the matter ended in this arrangement, that the orators
should be retained and the generals banished; when the latter immediately went
over to Darius, and formed no inconsiderable addition to the strength of the
Persians.

V. When he set out to the Persian war, he put to death all his
step-mother's relations 9 whom Philip had advanced
to any high dignity, or appointed to any command. Nor did he spare such of his
own kinsmen as seemed qualified to fill the throne, lest any occasion for
rebellion should be left in Macedonia during his absence; and of the tributary
princes he took such as were distinguished for ability to the war with him,
leaving the less able at home for the defence of his dominions. Having then
assembled his troops, he put them on shipboard, where, excited with incredible
animation at the sight of Asia, he erected altars to the twelve gods to offer
prayers for success in the war. He divided all his private property, which he
had in Macedonia and the rest of Europe, among his friends, saying, "that
for himself Asia was sufficient." Before any ship left the shore, he
offered sacrifices, praying for "victory in that war, in which he had been
chosen the avenger of Greece so often assailed by the Persians, to whom,"
he said, "a reign sufficiently long had been granted, a reign that had now
reached maturity, and it was time that others, who would conduct themselves
better, should take their place." Nor were the anticipations of the army
different from those of the priace; for all the soldiers, unmindful of their
wives and children, and of the length of the expedition from home, contemplated
the Persian gold, and the wealth of the whole east, as already their own prey,
thinking neither of the war nor its perils, but of riches only. When they
arrived at |95 the continent of Asia,
Alexander first of all threw a dart into the enemy's country, and leaped on the
shore in full armour, like one dancing the tripudium.10
He then proceeded to offer sacrifices, praying that "those countries might
not unwillingly receive him as their king." He also sacrificed at Troy, at
the tombs of the heroes who had fallen in the Trojan war.

VI. Marching forward in quest of the enemy, he kept the soldiers from
ravaging Asia, telling them that "they ought to spare their own property,
and not destroy what they came to possess." His army consisted of
thirty-two thousand infantry, and four thousand five hundred cavalry, with a
hundred and eighty-two ships. Whether, with this small force, it is more
wonderful that he conquered the world, or that he dared to attempt its conquest,
is difficult to determine. When he selected his troops for so hazardous a
warfare, he did not choose robust young men, or men in the flower of their age,
but veterans, most of whom had even passed their term of service, and who had
fought under his father and his uncles; 11 so that
he might be thought to have chosen, not soldiers, but masters in war. No one was
made an officer 12 who was not sixty years of age;
so that he who saw the captains assembled at head-quarters,13
would have declared that he saw the senate of some ancient republic. None, on
the field of battle, thought of flight, but every one of victory; none trusted
in his feet, but every one in his arms.

King Darius, on the other hand, from confidence in his strength, abstained
from all artifice in his operations; |96
observing that "clandestine measures were fit only for a stolen
victory;" he did not attempt to repel the enemy from his frontiers, but
admitted them into the heart of his kingdom, thinking it more honourable to
drive war out of his kingdom than not to give it entrance. The first engagement,
in consequence, was fought on the plains of Adrastia.14
The Persian army consisted of six hundred thousand men, who were conquered not
less by the valour of the Macedonians than by the conduct of Alexander, and took
to flight. The slaughter among the Persians was great. Of the army of Alexander
there fell only nine foot-soldiers, and a hundred and twenty horse, whom the
king buried sumptuously as an encouragement to the rest, honouring them also
with equestrian statues, and granting privileges to their relatives. After this
victory the greater part of Asia came over to his side. He had also several
encounters with Darius's lieutenants, whom he conquered, not so much by his
arms, as by the terror of his name.

VII. During the course of these proceedings, he was acquainted, on the
information of a certain prisoner, that a conspiracy was forming against him by
Alexander Lyncestes the son-in-law of Antipater, who had been made governor of
Macedonia. Fearing, therefore, that, if he were put to death, some disturbance
might arise in Macedonia, he only kept him in prison.15

He soon after marched to a city called Gordium, which is situated between the
Greater and Lesser Phrygia, and which he earnestly desired to take, not so much
for the sake of plunder, as because he had heard that in that city, in the
temple of Jupiter, was deposited the yoke of Gordius's car; the knot of which,
if any one should loose, the oracles of old had predicted that he should rule
all Asia. The cause and origin of the matter was as follows. When Gordius was
ploughing in these parts, with oxen that he had hired, 16
birds of every kind began to fly about him. Going to consult the augurs of the
next town on the occurrence, he met at the |97
gate a virgin of remarkable beauty, and asked her "which of the augurs he
had best consult." When she, having heard his reason for consulting them,
and knowing something of the art from the instruction of her parents, replied,
that "a kingdom was portended to him," and offered to become his wife
and the sharer of his expectations. So fair a match seemed the chief felicity of
a throne. After his marriage a civil war arose among the Phrygians; and when
they consulted the oracles how their discord, might be terminated, the oracles
replied that "a king was required to settle their disputes." Inquiring
a second time as to the person of the king, they were directed to regard him as
their king whom they should first observe, on their return, going to the temple
of Jupiter on a car. The person who presented himself to them was Gordius, and
they at once saluted him king. He dedicated the car, in which he was riding when
the throne was offered him, "to kingly majesty," and it was placed in
the temple of Jupiter. After him reigned his son Midas, who, having been
instructed by Orpheus in sacred rites, filled all Phrygia with ceremonies of
religion, by which he was better protected, during his whole life, than by arms.
Alexander, having taken the city, and gone to the temple of Jupiter, requested
to see the yoke of Gordius's car, and, when it was shown him, not being able to
find the ends of the cords, which were hidden within the knots, he put a forced
interpretation on the oracle, and cut the cords with his sword; and thus, when
the involutions were opened out, discovered the ends concealed in them.

VIII. While he was thus engaged, intelligence was brought him that
Darius was approaching with a vast army. Fearing the defiles, he crossed Mount
Taurus with the utmost expedition, advancing, in one of his forced marches, five
hundred stadia.17 Arriving at Tarsus, and being
charmed with the pleasantness of the river Cydnus, which flows through the midst
of the city, he threw off his armour, and, covered as he was with dust and
sweat, plunged himself into the water, which was then excessively cold; when, on
a sudden, such a numbness seized his nerves, that his voice was lost, and not
only was there no hope of saving his life, but not even a means of |98
delaying death could be found. One of his physicians, named Philippus, was the
only person that promised a cure; but a letter from Parmenio, which arrived the
day before from Cappadocia, rendered him an object of suspicion; for Parmenio,
knowing nothing of Alexander's illness, had written to caution him against
trusting Philippus, as he had been bribed by Darius with a large sum of money.
Alexander, however, thought it better to trust the doubtful faith of the
physician, than to perish of certain disease. Taking the cup from Philippus,
therefore, he gave him Parmenio's letter to read, and, as he drank, fixed his
eyes upon the physician's countenance while he was reading. Seeing him unmoved,
he became more cheerful, and recovered his health on the fourth day after.

IX. Meantime Darius advanced to battle with four hundred thousand foot
and a hundred thousand horse. So vast a multitude of enemies caused some
distrust in Alexander, when he contemplated the smallness of his own army; but
he called to mind, at the same time, how much he had already done, and how
powerful people he had overthrown, with that very moderate force. His hopes,
therefore, prevailing over his apprehensions, and thinking it more hazardous to
defer the contest, lest dismay should fall upon his men, he rode round among his
troops, and addressed those of each nation in an appropriate speech. He excited
the Illyrians and Thracians by describing the enemy's wealth and treasures, and
the Greeks by putting them in mind of their wars of old, and their deadly hatred
towards the Persians. He reminded the Macedonians at one time of their conquests
in Europe, and at another of their desire to subdue Asia, boasting that no
troops in the world had been found a match for them, and assuring them that this
battle would put an end to their labours and crown their glory. In the course of
these proceedings he caused the army occasionally to halt, that they might, by
such stoppages, accustom themselves to endure the sight of so great a multitude.
Nor was Darius less active in drawing up his forces. Rejecting the services of
his officers, he rode himself through the whole army, encouraged the several
divisions, and put them in mind of the ancient glory of the Persians, and the
perpetual possession of empire vouchsafed them by the im mortal gods. Soon after
a battle was fought with great spirit. |99
Both kings were wounded in it. The result remained doubtful until Darius fled,
when there ensued a great slaughter of the Persians, of whom there fell
sixty-one thousand infantry and ten thousand horse, and forty thousand were
taken prisoners. On the side of the Macedonians were killed a hundred and thirty
foot and a hundred and fifty horse. In the camp of the Persians was found
abundance of gold and other treasures; and among the captives taken in it were
the mother and wife, who was also the sister, of Darius, and two of his
daughters. When Alexander came to see and console them, they threw themselves,
at the sight of his armed attendants, into one another's arms, and uttered
mournful cries, as if expecting to die immediately. Afterwards, falling at the
feet of Alexander, they begged, not that they might live, but that their death
might be delayed till they should bury the body of Darius. Alexander, touched
with the respectful concern of the princesses for Darius, assured them that the
king was still alive, and removed their apprehensions of death; directing, at
the same time, that they should be treated as royal personages, and giving the
daughters hopes of husbands suitable to the dignity of their father.

X. As he afterwards contemplated the wealth and display of Darius, he
was seized with admiration of such magnificence. Hence it was that he first
began to indulge in luxurious and splendid banquets, and fell in love with his
captive Barsine for her beauty, by whom he had afterwards a son that he called
Hercules. Not forgetting, however, that Darius was still alive, he despatched
Parmenio to seize the Persian fleet, and commissioned some others of his friends
to secure the cities of Asia, which, on hearing the report of the victory, had
immediately submitted to the conqueror, the satraps of Darius surrendering
themselves with a vast quantity of treasure. He next marched into Syria, where
he was met by several princes of the east with fillets on their heads.18
Of these, according to their respective deserts, he received some into alliance;
others he deprived of their thrones, and put new kings in their places. Above
the rest Abdolonymus, appointed by Alexander king of Sidon, stood pre-eminent; a
man whom, when he was living a life of poverty, being accustomed to draw water,
and water gardens for hire, Alexander made |100
a king, setting aside the nobles, lest they should regard his favour as shown to
their birth, and not as proceeding from the kindness of the giver.

The city of Tyre sending Alexander, by the hands of a deputation, a golden
crown of great value, as a token of congratulation, he received their present
kindly, and told them that "he intended to visit Tyre to pay his vows to
Hercules." The deputies replying that "he would do that better at Old
Tyre,19 and in the more ancient temple;" he
was so provoked with them, because they evidently deprecated his visit, that he
threatened their city with destruction. Bringing up his army, soon after, to the
island, he was met with a hostile resistance, the Tyrians, from reliance on
Carthage, being not less determined than himself. The example of Dido had
stimulated the Tyrians; for that queen, after founding Carthage, had secured the
empire over the third part of the world;20 and they
thought it would be dishonourable if their women should show more courage in
acquiring dominion than they in defending their liberty. They removed to
Carthage, therefore, such as were unfit for war, and sent at once for
assistance, but were, not long afterwards, reduced by treachery.21

XI. Alexander next got possession of Rhodes and Cilicia 22
without an effort. He then went to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, to consult the
oracle about the event of his future proceedings, and his own parentage. For his
mother Olympias had confessed to her husband Philip, that "she had
conceived Alexander, not by him, but by a serpent of extraordinary size."
Philip, too, towards the end of his life, had publicly declared that
"Alexander was not his son;" and he accordingly divorced Olympias, as
having been guilty of adultery. Alexander, therefore, anxious to obtain the
honour of divine paternity, and to clear his mother from infamy, instructed the
priests, by messengers whom he sent before him, what answers |101
he wished to receive. The priests, as soon as he entered the temple, saluted him
as the son of Ammon. Alexander, pleased with the god's adoption of him, directed
that he should be regarded as his son. He then inquired "whether he had
taken vengeance on all that had been concerned in the assassination of his
father." He was answered that "his father could neither be
assassinated, nor could die; but that vengeance for Philip's death had been
fully exacted." On putting a third question, he was told that "success
in all his wars, and dominion over the world, was granted him." A response
was also given by the oracle to his attendants, that "they should reverence
Alexander as a god, and not as a king." Hence it was that his haughtiness
was so much increased, and a strange arrogance arose in his mind, the
agreeableness of demeanour, which he had contracted from the philosophy of the
Greeks and the habits of the Macedonians, being entirely laid aside. On his
return from the temple of Ammon he founded Alexandria, and desired that that
colony of the Macedonians might be considered the metropolis of Egypt.

XII. Darius, having fled to Babylon, entreated Alexander, in a letter,
"to give him permission to redeem his prisoners," offering a large sum
for their ransom. But Alexander demanded his whole kingdom, and not a sum of
money, as the price of their release. Some time after, another letter from
Darius was brought to Alexander, in which one of his daughters was offered him
in marriage, and a portion of his kingdom. Alexander replied that "what was
offered was his own," and desired him ''to come to him as a suppliant, and
to leave the disposal of his kingdom to his conqueror." All hopes of peace
being thus lost, Darius resumed hostilities, and proceeded to meet Alexander
with four hundred thousand infantry and a hundred thousand cavalry. On his march
he was informed that "his wife had died of a miscarriage, and that
Alexander had mourned for her death, and attended her funeral; acting, in that
respect, not from love, but merely from kindness of feeling; as Darius's wife
had been visited by him but once, though he had often gone to console his mother
and her little daughters."

Darius now considered himself indeed overcome, since, after losing so many
battles, he was surpassed by his enemy even in kindnesses, and declared that it
vas a consolation to him |102 since he
could not conquer, to be conquered by such an enemy. He therefore wrote a third
letter to Alexander, thanking him for not having acted as an enemy towards his
family, and offering him a larger portion of his kingdom, even as far as the
river Euphrates, another of his daughters in marriage, and thirty thousand
talents for the other prisoners. To this Alexander replied, that "thanks
were needless from an enemy; that nothing had been done by him to flatter
Darius, or to gain the means of mollifying him, with a view either to the
doubtful results of war, or to conditions of peace; but that he had acted from a
certain greatness of mind, by which he had learned to fight against the forces
of his enemies, not to take advantage of their misfortunes;" and he
promised at the same time, that "he would comply with the wishes of Darius,
if he would be content to be second to him, and not his equal; but that the
universe could not be governed by two suns, nor could the earth with safety have
two sovereigns; and that he must consequently either prepare to surrender on
that day, or to fight on the next, and must promise himself no better success
than he had already experienced."

XIII. On the next day they drew up their armies; when, on a sudden,
before they came to battle, a deep sleep fell on Alexander, who was wearied with
making arrangements. Nothing but the presence of the king being wanting, in
order to commence the engagement, he was awakened, though with difficulty, by
Parmenio, and as those about him asked the reason of his sleeping in the midst
of danger, when he was sparing of sleep even in time of security, he answered
that "he had been relieved from great concern, and that his repose was
occasioned by sudden freedom from apprehension, since he should now engage with
the forces of Darius in a body; whereas he had dreaded, if the Persians should
divide their army, that the war would be greatly protracted." Before the
battle commenced, each army was an object of admiration to its antagonists. The
Macedonians admired the host of men opposed to them, their stature, and the
beauty of their armour. The Persians were amazed that so many thousands of their
countrymen had been defeated by so small a force. Nor did the kings forbear to
ride round among their troops. Darius told his men, that "if a division of
the enemy were |103 made, scarcely one
man would fall to ten 23 of his own armed
followers." Alexander exhorted the Macedonians "not to be alarmed at
the numbers of the enemy, their stature, or the strangeness of their
complexion." He bade them remember only that "they were now fighting
for the third time with the same adversaries; and not to imagine that they had
been rendered braver by defeat, as they would bring into the field with them the
sad recollection of former disasters, and of the blood shed in the two previous
engagements;'' adding, that "Darius had the greater number of human beings,
but he himself the greater number of men." He admonished them "to
despise an army glittering with gold and silver, in which they would find more
spoil than danger, since victory was to be gained, not by splendour of arms, but
by the power of the sword."

XIV. Soon after, the battle was begun. The Macedonians rushed upon the
swords presented to them, with contempt for an enemy whom they had so often
defeated. The Persians, on the other hand, were desirous to die rather than be
conquered. Seldom has there been so much blood shed in a battle. Darius, when he
saw his army repulsed, wished himself to die, but was compelled by his officers
to flee. Some advising that the bridge over the Cydnus should be broken down, in
order to stop the advance of the enemy, he said that "he would not provide
for his safety in such a way as to expose so many thousands of his followers to
the foe; and that the road which was open to himself, ought also to be open to
others." Alexander, meanwhile, made the most hazardous efforts; where he
saw the enemy thickest, and fighting most desperately, there he always threw
himself, desiring that the peril should be his, and not his soldiers'. By this
battle he gained the dominion over Asia, in the fifth year after his accession
to the throne. His victory was so decisive, that after it none ventured to rebel
against him; and the Persians, after a supremacy of so many years, patiently |104
submitted to the yoke of servitude. After rewarding his soldiers, and allowing
them to recruit their strength for thirty-four days, he took account of the
spoil. He afterwards found forty thousand talents in the city of Susa. Next he
took Persepolis, the metropolis of the kingdom of Persia, a city which had been
eminent for many years, and which was filled with the spoils of the world, as
was now first seen at its destruction. In the course of these proceedings, about
eight hundred Greeks met Alexander, men who had been punished in captivity by
mutilation of their bodies, and who entreated that, "as he had delivered
Greece, he would also release them from the cruelty of their enemies."
Permission was given to them to go home, but they preferred receiving portions
of land in Persia, lest, instead of causing joy to their parents by their
return, they should merely shock them by the horrid spectacle which they
presented.

XV. Meanwhile, to gain the favour of the conqueror, Darius was
confined in golden fetters 24 and chains in a
village of the Parthians named Thara; the immortal gods, I suppose, ordaining
that the empire of the Persians should have its termination in the country of
those who were to succeed them in dominion.25
Alexander, hastening his march, arrived there on the following day, when he
found that Darius had been conveyed from the place in the night, in a covered
vehicle. Directing his army to follow him, he pursued the flying prince with six
thousand cavalry. On his march he had several severe encounters, and advanced
many miles without finding any traces of Darius. But while he was allowing the
horses time to rest, one of the soldiers, going to a neighbouring spring, found
Darius in the vehicle, wounded in several places, but still alive. One of the
Persian captives being brought forward, the dying prince, knowing from his voice
that he was his countryman, said that "he had at least this comfort in his
present sufferings, that he should speak to one who could understand him, and
that he should not utter his last words in vain." He then desired that the
following message should be given to Alexander: that "he died without
having done him any acts of kindness, but a debtor to him |105
for the greatest, since he had found his feelings towards his mother and
children to be those of a prince, not of a foe; that he had been more happy in
his enemy than in his relations, for by his enemy life had been granted to his
mother and children, but taken from himself by his relatives, to whom he had
given both life and kingdoms; and that such a requital must therefore be made
them as his conqueror should please. For himself, that he made the only return
to Alexander which he could at the point of death, by praying to the gods above
and below, and the powers that protected kings, that the empire of the world
might fall to his lot. That he desired the favour of a decent rather than a
magnificent funeral; and, as to avenging his death, it was not his cause alone
that was concerned, but precedent, and the common cause of all kings, which it
would be both dishonourable and dangerous for him to neglect; since, in regard
to vengeance, the interests of justice were affected, and, in regard to
precedent, those of the general safety. To this effect he gave him his right
hand, as the only pledge of a king's faith to be conveyed to Alexander."
Then, stretching out his hand, he expired.

When this intelligence was communicated to Alexander, he went to see the body
of the dead monarch, and contemplated with tears a death so unsuitable to his
dignity. He also directed his corpse to he buried as that of a king, and his
relics to be conveyed to the sepulchres of his ancestors.

BOOK XII.

Greece resumes hostilities in Alexander's absence, I.----Expedition of
Alexander, king of Epirus, into Italy; Scythia invaded, II.----Alexander's
luxury; Thalestris; Alexander assumes the Persian dress, III.----Effects of
his conduct on his troops; his mode of conciliating them, IV,----Parmenio
and Philotas put to death; further conquests of Alexander; Bessus delivered
up to justice, V.----Death of Clitus; Alexander's grief, VI.----Alexander's
pride; his march to the east; his ardour to surpass Bacchus and Hercules,
VII. ----Overcomes Porus, VIII. ---- His danger among the Sygambri; reaches
the mouth of the Indus; marries Statira, IX. X.----His munificence; he
suppresses a mutiny; death of Hephaestion, XI. XII.----Alexander poisoned by
the contrivance of Antipater, XIII. XIV.----His death, XV.----His eulogy,
XVI.

I. ALEXANDER interred the soldiers, whom he had lost in the pursuit of
Darius, at great expense, and distributed |106
thirteen thousand talents among the rest that attended him in that expedition.
Of the horses, the greater part were killed by the heat; and those that survived
were rendered unfit for service. All the treasure, amounting to a hundred and
ninety thousand talents, was conveyed to Ecbatana, and Parmenio was entrusted
with the charge of it. In the midst of these proceedings, letters from Antipater
in Macedonia were brought to Alexander, in which the war of Agis king of Sparta
in Greece, that of Alexander king of Epirus in Italy, and that of Zopyrion his
own lieutenant-general in Scythia, were communicated. At this news he was
affected with various emotions, but felt more joy at learning the deaths of two
rival kings, than sorrow at the loss of Zopyrion and his army.

After the departure of Alexander from Macedonia, almost all Greece, as if to
take advantage of the opportunity for recovering their liberty, had risen in
arms, yielding, in that respect, to the influence of the Lacedaemonians, who
alone had rejected peace from Philip and Alexander, and had scorned the terms on
which it was offered. The leader in this insurrection was Agis, king of the
Lacedaemonians, but Antipater, assembling an army, suppressed the commotion in
its infancy. The slaughter, however, was great on both sides; for king Agis,
when he saw his men taking to flight, dismissed his guards, and, that he might
seem inferior to Alexander in fortune only, not in valour, made such a havoc
among the enemy, that he sometimes drove whole troops before him. At last,
overpowered by numbers, he fell superior to all in glory.

II. Alexander, too, the king of Epirus, having been invited into Italy
by the Tarentines,* who desired his assistance against the Bruttians, had gone
thither as eagerly as if, in a division of the world, the east had fallen by lot
to Alexander, the son of his sister Olympias, and the west to himself, and as if
he was likely to have not less to do in Italy, Africa, and Sicily, than
Alexander in Asia and Persia. To this was added, that as the oracle at Delphi
had forewarned Alexander the Great against treachery in Macedonia, so that of
Jupiter at Dodona had admonished the other Alexander "to beware of the city
Pandosia and the river Acheron;" and as both these were in Epirus, and he
was ignorant that they were also to be found in Italy, he had the more eagerly
fixed on this foreign expedition, in hope of escaping the dangers signified in
the |107warning.
On his arrival in Italy, his first contest was with the Apulians; but when he
learned the destiny appointed to their city, he soon concluded a peace and
alliance with their king. The chief city of the Apulians, at that time, was
Brundusium, which a party of Aetolians that followed Diomede, a leader rendered
famous and honourable by his achievements at Troy, had founded; but being
expelled by the Apulians, and having recourse to some oracle, they received for
answer that "they would possess for ever the place which they had sought to
recover," On this ground they demanded of the Apulians that their city
should be restored, threatening them with war unless the demand should be
complied with. But the oracle becoming known to the Apulians, they put the
ambassadors to death, and buried them in the city, that they might have a
perpetual abode there; and, having thus given the oracle a fulfilment, they long
kept possession of the city. Alexander, hearing of this occurrence, and having
great respect for the oracles of antiquity, made an end of hostilities with the
Apulians.

He engaged also in war with the Bruttians and Lucanians, and captured several
cities; and he formed treaties and alliances with the Metapontines, Pediculans,
and Romans. But the Bruttians and Lucanians, having collected reinforcements
from their neighbours, renewed the war with fresh vigour; when the king was
slain near the city Pandosia and the river Acheron, not knowing the name of the
fatal place before he fell in it, and understanding, as he was expiring, that
the death, for fear of which he had fled from his country, had not been to be
dreaded in his country. The Thurians ransomed his body at the public expense,
and buried it.

During these events in Italy, Zopyrion, who had been left governor of Pontus
by Alexander the Great, thinking that, if he did not attempt something, he
should be stigmatized as indolent, collected a force of thirty thousand men, and
made war upon the Scythians. But being cut off, with his whole army, he paid the
penalty for a rash attack upon an innocent people.

III. When these occurrences were reported to Alexander, who was then
in Parthia, he assumed a show of grief on account of his relationship to
Alexander, and caused the army to mourn for three days. But while all his men
were expecting, as if the war had been ended, to return to their country, and |108
were embracing in imagination their wives and children, he called a general
assembly of the troops; in which he told them that "nothing had been done
in so many glorious battles, if the barbarians more to the eastward should be
left unmolested; that he had not sought the body, but the throne, of Darius; and
that those who had revolted from his government must be punished." Having,
by this speech, revived the spirits of his soldiers for new exertions, he
subdued Hyrcania and the Mardians. Here Thalestris, or Minithya, queen of the
Amazons, came to meet him, having travelled for twenty-five days, with three
hundred women in her train, and through extremely populous nations, in order to
have issue by him. Her appearance and arrival was a cause of astonishment to
all, both from her dress, which was an unusual one for women, and from the
object of her visit. To gratify her, thirteen days' rest was allowed by the
king; and when she thought herself pregnant, she took her leave.

Soon after, Alexander assumed the attire of the Persian monarchs, as well as
the diadem, which was unknown to the kings of Macedonia, as if he gave himself
up to the customs of those whom he had conquered. And lest such innovations
should be viewed with dislike, if adopted by himself alone, he desired his
friends also to wear the long robe of gold and purple. That he might imitate the
luxury too, as well as the dress of the Persians, he spent his nights among
troops of the king's concubines of eminent beauty and birth. To these
extravagances he added vast magnificence in feasting; and lest his
entertainments should seem jejune and parsimonious,26
he accompanied his banquets, according to the ostentation of the eastern
monarchs, with games; being utterly unmindful that power is accustomed to be
lost, not gained, by such practices.

IV. During the course of these proceedings, there arose throughout the
camp a general indignation that he had so degenerated from his father Philip as
to abjure the very name of his country, and to adopt the manners of the
Persians, |109 whom, from the effect of
such manners, he had overcome. But that he might not appear to be the only
person who yielded to the vices of those whom he had conquered in the field, he
permitted his soldiers also, if they had formed a connexion with any of the
female captives, to marry them; thinking that they would feel less desire to
return to their country, when they had some appearance of a house and home in
the camp, and that the fatigues of war would be relieved by the agreeable
society of their wives. He saw, too, that Macedonia would be less drained to
supply the army, if the sons, as recruits, should succeed their veteran fathers,
and serve within the ramparts within which they were born, and would be likely
to show more courage, if they passed, not only their earliest days of service,
but also their infancy, in the camp. This custom was also continued under
Alexander's successors. Maintenance was provided for the boys, and arms and
horses were given them when they grew up; and rewards were assigned to the
fathers in proportion to the number of their children. If the fathers of any of
them were killed, the orphans notwithstanding received their father's pay; and
their childhood was a sort of military service in various expeditions. Inured
from their earliest years to toils and clangers, they formed an invincible army;
they looked upon their camp as their countiy, and upon a battle as a prelude to
victory.

V. Alexander, meanwhile, began to show a passionate temper towards
those about him, not with a princely severity, but with the vindictiveness of an
enemy. What most incensed him was, that reflections were cast upon him in the
common talk of the soldiers, for having cast off the customs of his father
Philip and of his country. For this offence, Parmenio, an old man, next to the
king in rank, and his son Philotas, were put to death; an examination by torture
having been previously held on both of them. At this instance of cruelty, all
the soldiers, throughout the camp, began to express their displeasure, being
concerned for the fate of the innocent old general and his son, and saying, at
times, that "they must expect nothing better for themselves." These
murmurs coming to the knowledge of Alexander, he, fearing that such reports
would be carried to Macedonia, and that the glory of his victories would be
sullied by the stain of |110 cruelty,
pretended that be was going to send home some of his friends to give an account
of his successes. He exhorted his soldiers to write to their relatives, as they
would now have fewer opportunities on account of the scene of warfare being
further from home. The packets of letters, as they were given in, he commanded
to be privately brought to him, and having learned from them what every one
thought of him, he put all those, who had given unfavourable opinions of his
conduct, into one regiment, with an intention either to destroy them, or to
distribute them in colonies in the most distant parts of the earth.

He then subdued the Drancae, the Evergetae, the Parymae, the Parapammeni, the
Adaspii, and other nations that dwelt at the foot of Mount Caucasus.

In the meantime Bessus, one of the former friends of Darius, who had not only
betrayed his sovereign, but put him to death, was brought to Alexander in
chains, who, that he might be punished for his treachery, delivered him to the
brother of Darius to be tortured, considering not so much that Darius had been
his enemy, as that he had been the friend of the man by whom he had been lulled.

That he might leave his name to these parts, he founded the city of
Alexandria on the river Tanais, completing a wall six miles in circuit in
seventeen days, and transplanting into it the inhabitants of three cities that
had been built by Cyrus. He also built twelve cities in the territories of the
Bactrians and Sogdians, and distributed among them such of the soldiers as he
had found mutinous.

VI. After these proceedings, he invited his friends on some particular
day, to a banquet, where mention being made, when they were intoxicated, of the
great things achieved by Philip, he began to prefer himself to his father, and
to extol the vastness of his own exploits to the skies, the greater part of the
company agreeing with him; and when Clitus, one of the older guests, trusting to
his hold on the king's friendship, in which he held the principal place,
defended the memory of Philip, and praised his acts, he so provoked Alexander,
that he snatched a weapon from one of the guards, and slew him with it in the
midst of the guests. Exulting at the murder, too, he scoffed at the dead man for
his defence of Philip, and his commendation of his mode of warfare. But when his
mind, satiated with the bloodshed, grew calm, and reflection |111
took the place of passion, he began, as he contemplated at one time the
character of the dead, and at another the occasion of his death, to feel the
deepest sorrow for the deed; grieving that he had listened to his father's
praises with more anger than he ought to have listened to insults on his memory,
and that an old and blameless friend had been slain by him at a feast and
carousal. Driven, therefore, to repentance, with the same vehemence with which
he had before been impelled to resentment, he determined to die. Bursting into
tears, he embraced the dead man, laid his hand on his wounds, and confessed his
madness to him as if he could hear; then, snatching up a weapon, he pointed it
against his breast, and would have committed suicide, had not his friends
interposed. His resolution to die continued even for several days after; for to
his other causes of sorrow was added the remembrance of his nurse, the sister of
Clitus, on whose account, though she was far away, he was greatly ashamed of his
conduct, lamenting that so base a return should be made her for rearing him; and
that, in the maturity of life and conquest, he should have requited her, in
whose arms he had spent his infancy, with bloodshed instead of kindness. He
reflected, too, what remarks and odium he must have occasioned, as well in his
own army as among the conquered nations; what fear and dislike of himself among
his other friends; and how dismal and sad he had rendered his entertainment,
appearing not less to be dreaded at a feast than when armed in the field of
battle. Parmenio and Philotas, his cousin Amyntas, his murdered stepmother and
brothers, with Attalus, Eurylochus, Pausanias, and other slaughtered nobles of
Macedonia, presented themselves to his imagination. He in consequence persisted
inabstaining from food for four days, until he was drawn from his
purpose by the prayers of the whole army, who conjured him "not to lament
the death of one, so far as to ruin them all; since, after bringing them into
the remotest part of the barbarians' country, he would leave them amidst hostile
nations exasperated by war." The entreaties of Callisthenes the philosopher
had great effect upon him, a man who was intimate with him from having been his
fellow-student under Aristotle, and who had been subsequently sent for, by the
king himself, to record his acts for the perusal of posterity. |112

VII. Soon after, he gave orders that he should not be approached with
mere salutation, but with adoration;27 a point of
Persian pride to which he had hesitated to advance at first, lest the assumption
of everything at once should excite too strong a feeling against him. Among
those who refused to obey, the most resolute was Callisthenes; but his
opposition proved fatal, both to himself and to several other eminent
Macedonians, who were all put to death on the pretence that they were engaged in
a conspiracy. The custom of saluting their king was however retained by the
Macedonians, adoration being set aside.28

He then marched into India, that he might have his empire bounded by the
ocean, and the extreme parts of the east. That the equipments of his army might
be suitable to the glory of the expedition, he mounted the trappings of the
horses, and the arms of the soldiers, with silver, and called a body of his men,
from having silver shields, Argyraspides.29 On
arriving at the city Nysa, he ordered the inhabitants, who, from their
confidence in being protected by their worship of Bacchus, the founder of their
city, made no resistance, to be spared; rejoicing that he had not only followed
the god's military achievements, but also his footsteps. He then led his army to
view the sacred mountain, which was clad with the adornments of nature, the vine
and ivy, as beautifully as if it had been tilled by art, and decked by the
labour of the cultivator. But the troops, as they approached the hill, were
impelled, by a sudden commotion in their minds, to utter devout cries to the
god, and ran frantically up and down, to the amazement of the king, but without
suffering any harm; whence he might understand that, by sparing the town, he had
not so much secured its safety, as that of his own army.

He next proceeded to the Daedalian mountains,30
and the dominions of Queen Cleophis; who, after surrendering to Alexander,
recovered her throne from him by admitting him |113
to her bed; saving by her charms what she had been unable to secure by her
valour. A son whom she had by him, she named Alexander; and he afterwards sat
upon the throne of the Indians. Queen Cleophis, for allowing her chastity to be
violated, was thenceforward called by the Indians the royal harlot.

Having arrived, in his course through India, at a rock of extraordinary
ruggedness and altitude, to which many people had fled for refuge, he learned
that Hercules had been hindered from taking it by an earthquake. Seized with a
desire, in consequence, to go beyond the exploits of Hercules, he made himself
master of the rock with the utmost exertion and peril, and received submission
from all the tribes of that part of the country.

VIII. There was one of the kings of India, named Porus, equally
distinguished for strength of body and vigour of mind, who, hearing of the fame
of Alexander, had been for some time before preparing for war against his
arrival. Coming to battle with him, accordingly, he directed his soldiers to
attack the rest of the Macedonians, but desired that their king should be
reserved as an antagonist for himself. Nor did Alexander decline the contest;
but his horse being wounded in the first shock, he fell headlong to the ground,
and was saved by his guards gathering round him. Porus, covered with a number of
wounds, was made prisoner, and was so grieved at being defeated, that when his
life was granted him by the enemy, he would neither take food nor suffer his
wounds to be dressed, and was scarcely at last prevailed upon to consent to
live. Alexander, from respect to his valour, sent him back in safety to his
kingdom. Here he founded two cities, one called Nicaea, and the other, from the
name of his horse, Bucephale.

He then overthrew the Adrestae, the Gesteani, the Presidae, and the
Gangaridae, with great slaughter among their troops. When he had reached the
Cuphites, where the enemy awaited him with two thousand cavalry, the whole army,
wearied not less with the number of their victories than with their toils in the
field, besought him with tears that "he would at length make an end of war,
and think on his country and his return; considering the years of his soldiers,
whose remainder of life would scarcely suffice for their journey home." One
pointed |114 to his hoary hairs,
another to his wounds, another to his body worn out with an age, another to his
person disfigured with scars,31 saying "that
they were the only men who had endured unintermitted service under two kings,
Philip and Alexander;" and conjuring him in conclusion that "he should
restore their remains at least to the sepulchres of their fathers, since they
failed not in zeal but in age; and that, if he would not spare his soldiers, he
should yet spare himself, and not wear out his good fortune by pressing it too
far." Moved with these reasonable supplications, he ordered a camp to be
formed, as if to mark the termination of his conquests, of greater size than
usual, by the works of which the enemy might be astonished, and an admiration of
himself be left to posterity. No task did the soldiers execute with more
alacrity. After great slaughter of the enemy, they returned to this camp with
mutual congratulations.

IX. From hence Alexander proceeded to the river Acesines, and sailed
down it into the ocean. In his way he received the submission of the Hiacensanae
32 and the Silei, whom Hercules settled; next he
sailed to the Ambri and Sigambri,33 who met him
with eighty thousand foot and sixty thousand horse. Gaining the victory in a
battle, he led his army against their city; and supposing, as he looked from the
wall, which he had been the first to mount, that the place was destitute of
defenders, he leaped down into the area of the city without a single attendant.
The enemy, seeing him alone, gathered round upon him with a shout, to try if by
taking one life they could put an end to war in the world, and exact vengeance
for the defeats of so many nations. Alexander withstood them with equal spirit,
fighting alone against thousands. It is, indeed, incredible, that neither the
multitude of enemies, nor the thick showers of javelins, nor the loud outcries
of his assailants, could in the least alarm him; and that he alone should have
spread havoc and terror among so many thousands. But seeing that he was likely
to be overpowered by numbers, |115 he
fixed himself against the trunk of a tree that stood by the wall, by the help of
which he long resisted a host, when, his danger being known, his friends leaped
down to him, many of whom were slain, and the battle continued doubtful, till
the whole army, making a breach in the wall, came to his aid. Being wounded in
the struggle by an arrow, and likely to faint through loss of blood, he placed
his knee on the ground, and fought till he had killed the man by whom he had
been wounded. The curing of the wound caused him more suffering than the wound
itself.

X. Being at length restored to health, after there had been great
despair of it, he sent Polysperchon with the army to Babylon, while he himself,
with a select band of followers, went on board the fleet, and sailed along the
shore of the ocean. When he came to the city of king Ambiger, the inhabitants,
hearing that he was invincible to the sword, tipped their arrows with poison;
and thus repulsing the enemy from their walls with wounds doubly fatal, they
killed a great number of them. Ptolemy, with many others, being wounded, and
seeming to be at the point of death, a herb was shown to the king in a, dream as
a cure for poison; this being taken in a drink, he was freed from danger, and
the greater part of the army were saved by the same remedy. Taking the city
afterwards by storm, and returning to the fleet, he made oblations to the ocean,
praying for a prosperous return to his country; and having thus, as it were,
driven his chariot round the goal, and fixed the boundaries of his empire, as
far as either the deserts would suffer him to proceed by land, or the sea was
navigable, he sailed up the mouth of the river Indus with the tide. There he
built the city Barce, in memory of the exploits achieved by him, and erected
altars, leaving one of his friends as governor of the Indians on the coast. As
he intended to march from thence by land, and as the parts in the middle of his
route were said to be dry, he ordered wells to be made in suitable places, from
which he got abundance of fresh water, and so returned to Babylon. Hither many
of the conquered people sent deputations to accuse their governors, whom
Alexander, without any regard to his former friendship for them, commanded to be
put to death in the sight of the deputies.

Soon after he married Statira, the daughter of king Darius; but, at the same
time, he gave the noblest virgins, chosen from |116
all the conquered natives, as wives to the chiefs of the Macedonians; in order
that the impropriety of the king's conduct 34 might
be rendered less glaring by the practice becoming general.

XI. He next assembled the army, and promised that "he would pay
all their debts at his own expense," so that they might carry home their
spoil and prizes undiminished. This munificence was highly prized, not only for
the sum given, but for the character of the gift, and was received not more
thankfully by the debtors than by the creditors, exaction being as troublesome
to the one as payment to the other. Twenty thousand talents were expended in
this largess. Discharging some of the veterans, he recruited the army with
younger soldiers. But those that were retained, murmuring at the discharge of
the older men, demanded that they themselves should be released likewise;
desiring that "their years, not of life, but of service, should be
counted," and thinking it reasonable that "those who had been enlisted
in the service together, should together be set free from the service." Nor
did they address the king only with entreaties, but also with reproaches,
bidding him "carry on his wars alone, with the aid of his father Ammon,
since he looked with disdain on his soldiers." Alexander, on the other
hand, sometimes upbraided his men, and sometimes charged them in gentle terms,
"not to tarnish their glorious services by mutiny." At last, when he
could produce no effect by words, he leaped unarmed from his tribunal among the
armed multitude, to lay hands on the authors of the mutiny; and not a man daring
to oppose him, he led thirteen of them, whom he had seized with his own hand, to
punishment. Such submission to death did the fear of their king produce in the
men; or such courage in inflicting punishment had his knowledge of military
discipline given the king.

XII. He then addressed himself, in a public speech, to the auxiliary
troops of the Persians apart from the Macedonians. He extolled their constant
fidelity, as well as to himself as to their former kings; he mentioned the
kindnesses which he had shown them, saying that "he had never treated them
as |117 a conquered people, but always
as sharers in his successes; that he had gone over to the usages of their
nation, not they to those of his; and that he had mingled the conquerors with
the conquered by matrimonial connexions. And now," he added, "he would
entrust the guardianship of his person, not to the Macedonians only, but also to
them." Accordingly, he enrolled a thousand of their young men among his
bodyguard; and at the same time incorporated into his army a portion of the
auxiliaries, trained after the discipline of the Macedonians. At this proceeding
the Macedonians were much dissatisfied, exclaiming that "their enemies were
put into their places by their king;" and at length they all went to
Alexander in a body, beseeching him with tears "to content himself rather
with punishing than ill-treating them." By this modest forbearance they
produced such an effect upon him, that he released eleven thousand veterans
more. Of his own friends, too, were sent away the old men, Polysperchon, Clitus,
Gorgias, Polydamas, Amadas, and Antigènes. Of those that were sent home
Craterus was appointed leader, and commissioned to take the government of
Macedonia in the room of Antipater, whom he sent for, with a body of recruits,
to supply the place of Craterus. Pay was allowed to those that went home, as if
they had been still in the service. In the course of those proceedings,
Hephaestion, one of his friends, died; a man who was a great favourite with
Alexander, at first on account of his personal qualities in youth, and
afterwards from his servility. Alexander mourned for him longer than became his
dignity as a king, built a monument for him that cost twelve thousand talents,
and gave orders that he should be worshipped as a god.

XIII. As he was returning to Babylon, from the distant shores of the
ocean, he was acquainted that embassies from, the Carthaginians, and other
states of Africa, as well as from the Spains, Sicily, Gaul, and Sardinia, and
some also from Italy, were waiting his arrival at that city. So powerfully had
the terror of his name diffused itself through the world, that all nations were
ready to bow to him as their destined monarch. When he was hastening to Babylon,
therefore, to hold an assembly, as it were, of the states of the world, one of
the Magi warned him "not to enter the city," for that the "place
would be fatal to him." He accordingly |118
avoided Babylon, and turned aside to Borsippa, a city on the other side of the
Euphrates, that had been for some time uninhabited. Here again be was persuaded
by Anaxarchus the philosopher, to slight the predictions of the Magi as
fallacious and uncertain; observing that, "if things were fixed by fate,
they were unknown to mortals, and, if they were dependent on the course of
nature, were unchangeable." Returning, therefore, to Babylon, and allowing
himself several days for rest, he renewed, in his usual manner, the
entertainments which had been for some time discontinued, resigning himself
wholly to mirth, and joining in his cups the night to the day. As he was
returning, on one occasion, from a banquet, Médius, a Thessalian, proposing to
renew their revelling, invited him and his attendants to his house. Taking up a
cup, he suddenly uttered a groan while he was drinking, as if he had been
stabbed with a dagger, and being carried half dead from the table, he was
excruciated with such torture that he called for a sword to put an end to it,
and felt pain at the touch of his attendants as if he were all over wounds. His
friends reported that the cause of his disease was excess in drinking, but in
reality it was a conspiracy, the infamy of which the power of his successors
threw into the shade.

XIV. The author of this conspiracy was Antipater, who, seeing that 35
his dearest friends were put to death, that Alexander Lyncestes, his son-in-law,
was cut off, and that he himself, after his important services in Greece, was
not so much liked by the king as envied by him, and was also persecuted with
various charges by his mother Olympias; reflecting, too, on the severe penalties
inflicted, a few days before, on the governors of the conquered nations, and
hence imagining that he was sent for from Macedonia, not to share in the war,
but to suffer punishment, secretly, in order to be beforehand with Alexander,
furnished his son Cassander with poison, who, with his brothers Philippus and
Iollas, was accustomed to attend on the king at table. The strength of this
poison was so great, that it could be contained neither in brass, nor iron, nor
shell, nor could be conveyed in any other way than in the hoof of a horse.
Cassander had been warned |119 to trust
nobody but the Thessalian and his brothers; and hence it was that the banquet
was prepared and renewed in the house of the Thessalian. Philippus and Iollas,
wko used to taste and mix the king's drink, had the poison ready in cold water,
which they put into the drink after it had been tasted.

XV. On the fourth day, Alexander, finding that death was inevitable,
observed that "he perceived the approach of the fate of his family, for the
roost of the Aeacidae had died under thirty years of age."36
He then pacified the soldiers, who were making a tumult, from suspecting that
the king was the victim of a conspiracy, and, after being carried to the highest
part of the city, admitted them to his presence, and gave them his right hand to
kiss. While they all wept, he not only did not shed a tear, but showed not the
least token of sorrow; so that he even comforted some who grieved immoderately,
and gave others messages to their parents; and his soul was as undaunted at
meeting death, as it had formerly been at meeting an enemy. When the soldiers
were gone, he asked his friends that stood about him, "whether they thought
they should find a king like him?" All continuing silent, he said that,
"although he did not know that, he knew, and could foretel, and almost saw
with his eyes, how much blood Macedonia would shed in the disputes that would
follow his death, and with what slaughters, and what quantities of gore, she
would perform his obsequies." At last he ordered his body to be buried in
the temple of Jupiter Ammon. When his friends saw him dying, they asked him
"whom he would appoint as the successor to his throne?" He replied,
"The most worthy." Such was his nobleness of spirit, that though he
left a son named Hercules,37 a brother called
Aridaeus,38 and his wife Roxane 39
with child, yet, forgetting his relations, he named only "the most
worthy" as his successor; as though it were unlawful for any but a brave
man to succeed a brave man, or for the power of so great an empire to be left to
any but approved governors. But as if, by this reply, he had |120
sounded the signal for battle among his friends, or had thrown the apple of
discord amongst them, they all rose in emulation* against each other, and tried
to gain the favour of the army by secretly paying court to the common soldiers.
On the sixth day from the commencement of his illness, being unable to speak, he
took his ring from his finger, and gave it to Perdiccas; an act which
tranquillized the growing dissension among his friends; for though Perdiccas was
not expressly named his successor, he seemed intended to be so in Alexander's
judgment.

XVI. Alexander, when he died, was thirty-three years and one month
old. He was a man endowed with powers of mind far beyond ordinary human
capacity. His mother Olympias, the night in which she conceived him, dreamed
that she was entwined with a huge serpent; nor was she deceived by her drearn;
for she certainly bore in her womb a conception superior to mortality; and
though her descent from the Aeacidae, a family of the remotest antiquity, and
the royal dignity of her father, brother, husband, and indeed of all her
ancestors, conferred sufficient splendour upon her, yet by no one's influence
was she rendered more illustrious than that of her son. Some omens of his future
greatness appeared at his birth. Two eagles sat the whole of the day on which he
was born on the top of his father's palace, giving indication of his double
empire over Europe and Asia. The very same day, too, his father received the
news of two victories, one in the war with the Illyrians, the other in the
Olympic games, tc which he had sent some four-horse chariots; an omen which
portended to the child the conquest of the world. As a boy, he was ably
instructed in elementary learning; and, when his boyhood was past, he improved
himself, for five years, under his famous instructor Aristotle.40
On taking possession of the throne, he gave orders that he should be styled
"King of all the earth and of the world; " and he inspired his
soldiers with such confidence in him, that, when he was present, they |121
feared the arms of no enemy, though they themselves were unarmed. He, in
consequence, never engaged with any enemy whom he did not conquer, besieged no
city that he did not take, and invaded no nation that he did not subjugate. He
was overcome at last, not by the prowess of any enemy, but by a conspiracy of
those whom he trusted, and the treachery of his own subjects.

BOOK XIII.

Feelings of the Macedonians on the death of Alexander, I.----Opinions of
the generals about a successor, II.----Mutiny among the infantry,
III.----Aridaeus chosen king; the generals divide the provinces among them,
IV.----The Aetolians and Athenians fight for the liberty of Greece; the
services of Demosthenes, V.----Perdiccas defeats the Cappadocians; goes to
war with Antigonus; conduct of Ptolemy, VI.----Account of Cyrene,
VII.----Ptolemy goes to war with Perdiccas; acts of Eumenes, VIII.

I. WHEN Alexander was thus cut off in the flower of his age, and at
the height of his successes, a mournful silence prevailed among all people
throughout Babylon. But the conquered nations could not give credit to the
report of his death, because, as they had believed him to be invincible, they
had also conceived that he was immortal, reflecting how frequently he had been
snatched from imminent destruction, and how often, when he was given up for
lost, he had suddenly presented himself to his soldiers, not only safe, but
victorious. As soon, however, as the report of his death was confirmed, all the
barbarous nations, whom he had shortly before subdued, lamented for him, not as
an enemy, but as a father. The mother, too, of King Darius, who, though she had
been reduced, after the death of her son, from the summit of royal dignity to
the state of a captive, had, till that day, through the kindness of the
conqueror, never felt weary of life, com mitted suicide when she heard of the
death of Alexander; not that she felt more for an enemy 41
than she had felt for her son, but because she had experienced the attention of
a son from him whom she had feared as an enemy. The Macedonians, on the other
hand, did not mourn for him as a |122
countryman, and a prince of such eminence, but rejoiced at his death as at that
of an enemy, execrating his excessive severity and the perpetual hardships of
war to which he exposed them. The chiefs, moreover, were looking to sovereignty
and offices of command; the common soldiers to the treasury and heaps of gold,
as a prize unexpectedly presented to their grasp; the one meditating on the
possibility of seizing the throne, the other on the means of securing wealth and
plenty; for there were in the treasury fifty thousand talents, while the annual
tribute produced thirty thousand. Nor did the friends of Alexander look to the
throne without reason; for they were men of such ability and authority, that
each of them might have been taken for a king. Such was the personal
gracefulness, the commanding stature, and the eminent powers of body and mind,
apparent in all of them, that whoever did not know them, would have thought that
they had been selected, not from one nation, but from the whole earth. Never
before, indeed, did Macedonia, or any other country, abound with such a
multitude of distinguished men; whom Philip first, and afterwards Alexander, had
selected with such skill, that they seemed to have been chosen, not so much to
attend them to war, as to succeed them on the throne. Who then can wonder, that
the world was conquered by such officers, when the army of the Macedonians
appeared to be commanded, not by generals, but by princes?----men who would
never have found antagonists to cope with them, if they had not quarrelled with
one another; while Macedonia would have had many Alexanders instead of one, had
not Fortune inspired them with mutual emulation for their mutual destruction.

II. But, when Alexander was taken off, their feelings of security were
not in proportion to their exultation; for they were all competitors for the
same dignity; nor did they fear one another 42 more
than the soldiery, whose licence was less controllable, and whose favour was
more uncertain. Their very equality inflamed their discord, no one being so far
superior to the rest, that any other would submit to him. |123
They therefore met in the palace under arms to settle the present state of
affairs. Perdiccas gave his opinion that "they ought to wait till Roxane
was delivered, who was now eight months gone with child by Alexander; and that,
if she brought forth a boy, he should be appointed his father's successor."
Meleager argued that "their proceedings should not be suspended for the
result of an uncertain birth; nor ought they to wait till kings were born, when
they might choose from such as were already born; for if they wished for a boy,
there was at Pergamus a son of Alexander by Barsine, named Hercules; or, if they
would rather have a man, there was then in the camp Aridaeus, a brother of
Alexander, a person of courteous manners, and acceptable to every body, not only
on his own account, but on that of his father Philip. But that Roxane was of
Persian origin, and that it was unlawful that kings should be chosen for the
Macedonians from the blood of those whose kingdoms they had overthrown; a choice
to which Alexander himself would not have consented, who, indeed, when he was
dying, made no mention of Roxane's issue." Ptolemy objected to Aridaeus as
king, "not only on account of the meanness of his mother (he being the son
of a courtezan of Larissa), but because of the extraordinary weakness with which
he was affected, lest, while he had the name of king, another should exercise
the authority;" and said that "it would be better for them to choose
from those who were next in merit to the king, and who could govern the
provinces and be entrusted with the conduct of wars, than to be subjected to the
tyranny of unworthy men under the authority of a king." The opinion of
Perdiccas was adopted with the consent of all; and it was resolved to wait for
the delivery of Roxane; and, if a boy should be born, they appointed Leonatus,
Perdiccas, Craterus, and Antipater, his guardians, to whom they at once took an
oath of obedience.

III. When the cavalry had also taken the oath, the infantry, indignant
that no share in the deliberation had been granted to them, proclaimed Aridaeus,
the brother of Alexander, king, chose him guards from their own body, and
appointed that he should be called Philip, after the name of his father. These
proceedings being reported to the cavalry, they despatched two of their
officers, Attalus and Meleager, to quell the excitement; but they, hoping for
power for |124 themselves by flattering
the multitude, neglected their commission, and took part with the soldiers. The
insurrection soon gathered strength, when it once began to have a head and
regular management. The infantry rushed in a body, under arms, to the palace,
with a resolution to cut the cavalry to pieces; but the cavalry, hearing of
their approach, retreated in haste from the city, and after pitching their camp,
began to threaten the infantry in return. Nor did the animosity of the chiefs,
meanwhile, abate. Attalus despatched some of his men to assassinate Perdiccas,
the leader of the opposite party, but, as he was armed, the assassins durst not
go near him, though he freely invited them to approach; and such was the
resolution of Perdiccas, that he went of his own accord to the infantry, and,
summoning them to an assembly, represented to them the atrocity of their
conduct; admonishing them "to consider against whom they had taken arms;
that they were not Persians, but Macedonians; not enemies, but their own
countrymen; most of them their kinsmen, but certainly all of them their fellow
soldiers, sharers of the same camp and of the same dangers; that they would
present a striking spectacle to their enemies, who would rejoice at the mutual
slaughter of those by whose arms they grieved at having been conquered; and that
they would atone with their own blood to the manes of their slaughtered
adversaries."

IV. Perdiccas having enforced these arguments with eloquence peculiar
to himself, produced such an effect upon the infantry, that his admonitions were
obeyed, and he was unanimously chosen general. The cavalry, soon after, being
reconciled with the infantry, agreed to have Aridaeus for their king. A portion
of the empire was reserved for Alexander's son, if a son should be born. These
proceedings they conducted with the body of Alexander placed in the midst of
them, that his majesty might be witness to their resolutions; Such an
arrangement being made, Antipater was appointed governor of Macedonia and
Greece; the charge of the royal treasure was given to Craterus; the management
of the camp, the army, and the war, to Meleager and Perdiccas; and king Aridaeus
was commissioned to convey the body of Alexander to the temple of Jupiter Ammon.
Perdiccas, who was still enraged at the authors of the late disturbance,
suddenly gave notice, without the knowledge of his colleague, that there |125
would be a lustration of the camp on the following day on account of the king's
death. Having drawn up the troops under arms in the field, he, with the general
consent, gave orders, as he passed along, that the offenders, selected from each
company, should be secretly given up to punishment. On his return, he divided
the provinces among the chief men, in order both to remove his rivals out of the
way, and to make the gift of a prefectship appear a favour from himself. In the
first place Egypt, with part of Africa and Arabia, fell by lot to Ptolemy, whom
Alexander, for his merit, had raised from the condition of a common soldier: and
Cleomenes, who had built Alexandria,43 was directed
to put the province into his hands. Laomedon of Mitylene was allotted Syria,
which bordered ou Ptolemy's province; Philotas, Cilicia; and Philo, Illyria.
Atropatus was set over the Greater Media; the father-in-law of Perdiccas over
the Less. Susiana was assigned to Scynus, and the Greater Phrygia to Antigonus,
the son of Philip. Nearchus received Lycia and Pamphylia; Cassander, Caria; and
Menander, Lydia. The Lesser Phrygia fell to Leonatus; Thrace, and the coasts of
the Pontic sea, to Lysimachus; Cappadocia and Paphlagonia were given to Eumenes.
The chief command of the camp fell to Seleucus the son of Antiochus. Cassander,
the son of Antipater, was made commander of the king's guards and attendants. In
Ulterior Bactriana, and the countries of India, the present governors were
allowed to retain their office. The region between the rivers Hydaspes and
Indus, Taxiles received. To the colonies settled in India, Python, the son of
Agenor, was sent. Of Paropamisia, and the borders of mount Caucasus, Extarches
had the command. The Arachosians and Gedrosians were assigned to Sibyrtius; the
Drancae and Arci to Stasanor. Amyntas was allotted the Bactrians, Scythaeus the
Sogdians, Nicanor the Parthians, Philippus the Hyrcanians, Phrataphemes the
Armenians, Tleptolemus the Persians, Peucestes the Babylonians, Archon the
Pelasgians, Arcesilaus, Mesopotamia. When this allotment, like a gift from the
fates, was made to |126 each, it was to
many of them a great occasion for improving their fortunes; for not long after,
as if they had divided kingdoms, not governments, among themselves, they became
princes instead of prefects, and not only secured great power to themselves, but
bequeathed it to their descendants.

V. While these transactions were passing in the east, the Athenians
and Aetolians proceeded with all their might to prosecute the war which they had
begun in the life of Alexander. The cause of the war was, that Alexander, on his
return from India, had written certain letters to Greece, according to which the
exiles from all the states, except such as had been convicted of murder, were to
be recalled. These letters, being read before all Greece, assembled at the
Olympic games,44 had excited a great commotion;
because many had been banished, not by legal authority, but by a faction of the
leading men, who were afraid that, if they were recalled, they would become more
powerful in their states than themselves. Many states therefore at once
expressed open discontent, and said that their liberty must be secured by force
of arms. The leaders among them, all, however, were the Athenians and Aetolians.

This being reported to Alexander, he gave orders that a thousand ships of war
should be raised among his allies, with which he might carry on war in the west;
and he intended to make an expedition, with a powerful force, to level Athens
with the ground. The Athenians, in consequence, collecting an army of thirty
thousand men and two hundred ships, went to war with Antipater, to whom the
government of Greece had been assigned; and when he declined to come to battle,
and sheltered himself within the walls of Heraclea, they besieged him there; At
that time Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, who had been banished from his
country on the charge of taking gold from Harpalus (a man who had fled from
Alexander's severity), bribing him to prevail on the city 45
to go to war with Alexander, happened then to be living in exile at Megara, and
learning that Hyperides was sent as an ambassador by the Athenians to persuade
the Peloponnesians to join |127 in the
war, followed him, and, by his eloquence, brought over Sicyon, Argos, Corinth,
and other states, to the Athenian interest. For this service a ship was sent for
him by the Athenians, and he was recalled from banishment. Meanwhile Leosthenes,
the general of the Athenians, was killed, while he was besieging Antipater, by a
dart hurled at him from the wall as he was passing by. This occurrence gave so
much encouragement to Antipater, that he ventured to break down the Athenian
rampart. He then sought assistance from Leonatus, who was soon reported to be
approaching with his army; but the Athenians met him in battle array, and he was
severely wounded in an action of the cavalry, and died. Antipater, though he saw
his auxiliaries defeated, was yet rejoiced at the death of Leonatus,
congratulating himself that his rival was taken off, and his force added to his
own. Taking Leonatus's army under his command, therefore, and thinking himself a
match for the enemy, even in a regular battle, he immediately released himself
from the siege, and marched away to Macedonia. The forces of the Greeks, too,
having driven the enemy 46 from the territory of
Greece, went off to their several cities.

VI. Perdiccas, in the meantime, making war upon Ariarathes, king of
the Cappadocians, defeated him in a pitched battle, but got no other reward for
his efforts but wounds and perils; for the enemy, retreating from the field into
the city, killed each his own wife and children, and set fire to his house and
all that he possessed; throwing their slaves too into the flames, and afterwards
themselves, that the victorious enemy might enjoy nothing belonging to them but
the sight of the conflagration that they had kindled. Soon after, that he might
secure royal support to his present power, he turned his thoughts to a marriage
with Cleopatra, sister of Alexander the Great, and formerly wife of the other
Alexander,47 her mother Olympias showing no dislike
to the match. But he wished first to outwit Antipater, by pretending a desire
for an alliance with him, and therefore made a feint of asking his daughter in
marriage, the more easily to procure from him young recruits from Macedonia.
Antipater, however, seeing |128
through, his deceit, he courted two wives at once, but obtained neither.

Afterwards a war arose between Antigonus and Perdiccas; Craterus and
Antipater (who, having made peace with the Athenians, had appointed Polysperchon
to govern Greece and Macedonia) lent their aid to Antigonus. Perdiccas, as the
aspect of affairs was unfavourable, called Aridaeus, and Alexander the Great's
son,48 then in Cappadocia (the charge of both of
whom had been committed to him), to a consultation concerning the management of
the war. Some were of opinion that it should be transferred to Macedonia, to the
very head and metropolis of the kingdom, where Olympias, the mother of
Alexander, was, who would be no small support to their party, while the good
will of their countrymen would be with them, from respect to the names of
Alexander and Philip; but it seemed more to the purpose to begin with Egypt,
lest, while they were gone into Macedonia, Asia should be seized by Ptolemy.
Paphlagonia, Caria, Lycia, and Phrygia were assigned to Eumenes, in addition to
the provinces which he had already received; and he was directed to wait in
those parts for Craterus and Antipater, Alcetas, the brother of Perdiccas, and
Neoptolemus being appointed to support him with their forces. The command of the
fleet was given to Clitus. Cilicia, being taken from Philotas, was given to
Philoxenus. Perdiccas himself set out for Egypt with a large army. Thus
Macedonia, while its commanders separated into two parties, was armed against
its own vitals, and turned the sword from warring against the enemy to the
effusion of civil blood, being ready, like people in a fit of madness, to hack
her own hands and limbs. But Ptolemy, by his wise exertions in Egypt, was
acquiring great power; he had secured the favour of the Egyptians by his
extraordinary prudence; he had attached the neighbouring princes by acts of
kindness and courtesy; he had extended the boundaries of his kingdom by getting
possession of the city Cyrene, and was grown so great that he did not fear his
enemies so much as he was feared by them.

VII. Cyrene was founded by Aristaeus, who, from being tongue-tied, was
also called Battus. His father Grinus, king of |129
the isle of Thera, having gone to the oracle at Delphi, to implore the god to
remove the ignominy of his son, who was grown up but could not speak, received
an answer by which his son Battus was directed "to go to Africa, and found
the city of Cyrene, where he would gain the use of his tongue." This
response appearing but a jest, by reason of the paucity of inhabitants in the
island of Thera, from which a colony was desired to go to build a city in a
country of such vast extent as Africa, the matter was neglected. Some time
after, the Therans, as being guilty of disobedience, were forced by a pestilence
to comply with the god's directions. But the number of the colonists was so
extremely small that they scarcely filled one ship. Arriving in Africa, they
dislodged the inhabitants from a hill named Cyras, and took possession of it for
themselves, on account both of the pleasantness of the situation and the
abundance of springs in it. Here Battus, their leader, the strings of his tongue
being loosed, began to speak; which circumstance, as one part of the god's
promises was fulfilled, gave them encouragement to entertain the further hope of
building a city. Pitching their camp, accordingly, they received information of
an old tradition, that Cyrene, a maiden of extraordinary beauty, was carried off
by Apollo from Pelion, a mountain in Thessaly, and brought to that very mountain
on which they had seized a hill, where, becoming pregnant by the god, she
brought forth four sons, Nomius, Aristaeus, Authocus, and Argaeus; and that a
party being sent by her father Hypsaeus, king of Thessaly, to seek for the
damsel, were so attracted by the charms of the place, that they settled there
with her. Of her four sons, it was said that three, when they grew up, returned
to Thessaly, and inherited their grandfather's kingdom; and that the fourth,
Aristaeus, reigned over a great part of Arcadia, and taught mankind the
management of bees and honey, and the art of making cheese, and was the first
that observed the solstitial risings of Sirius.49
On hearing this account, Battus built the city in obedience |130
to the oracle, calling it Cyrene,50 from the name
of the maiden.

VIII. Ptolemy, having increased his strength from the forces of this
city, made preparations for war against the coming of Perdiccas. But the hatred
which Perdiccas had incurred by his arrogance did him more injury than the power
of the enemy; for his allies, detesting his overbearingness, went over in troops
to Antipater. Neoptolemus, too, who had been left to support Eumenes, intended
not only to desert himself, but also to betray the force of his party; when
Eumenes, understanding his design, thought it a matter of necessity to engage
the traitor in the field. Neoptolemus, being worsted, fled to Antipater and
Polysperchon, and persuaded them to surprise Eumenes, by marching without
intermission, while he was full of joy for his victory, and freed from
apprehension by his own flight. But this project did not escape Eumenes; the
plot was in consequence turned, upon the contrivers of it; and they who expected
to attack him unguarded, were attacked themselves when they were on their march,
and wearied with watching through the previous night. In this battle,
Polysperchon was killed.51 Neoptolemus, too,
engaging hand to hand with Eumenes, and maintaining a long struggle with him, in
which both were wounded more than once, was at last overpowered and fell.
Eumenes, therefore, being victorious in two successive battles, supported in
some degree the spirits of his party, which had been cast down by the desertion
of their allies. At last, however, Perdiccas being killed,52
Eumenes was declared an enemy by the army together with Pitho, Illyrius, and
Alcetas, the brother of Perdiccas; and the conduct of the war against them was
committed to Antigonus. |131

BOOK XIV.

Conduct of Eumenes in the war with Antigonus, I.----Being unsuccessful,
he flees to the Argyraspides, II.----They, being defeated, resolve to
deliver Eumenes to Antigonus, III.----Eumenes addresses the army; he and the
Argyraspides fall into the power of Antigonus, IV.----Proceedings of
Cassander and Olympias, V.----Death of Olympias, VI.

I. WHEN Eumenes found that Perdiccas was slain, that he himself was
declared an enemy by the Macedonians, and that the conduct of the war against
him was committed to Antigonus, he at once made known the state of affairs to
his troops, lest report should either exaggerate matters, or alarm the minds of
the men with the unexpected nature of the events; designing at the same time to
learn how they were affected towards him, and to take his measures according to
the feeling expressed by them as a body. He boldly gave notice, however, that
"if any one of them felt dismayed at the news, he had full liberty to
depart." By this declaration he so strongly attached them to his side, that
they all immediately exhorted him to prosecute the war, and protested that
"they would annul the decrees of the Macedonians with their swords."
Having then led his army into Aetolia,53 he exacted
contributions from the different cities, and plundered, like an enemy, such as
refused to pay. Next he went to Sardis, to Cleopatra, the sister of Alexander
the Great, that with her influence he might encourage his captains and chief
officers, who would think that the royal authority was on that side on which the
sister of Alexander stood. Such veneration was there for the greatness of
Alexander, that the influence of hig sacred name was sought even by means of
women.

When he returned to his camp, letters were found scattered through it, in
which great rewards were offered to any that should bring the head of Eumenes to
Antigonus. This coming to his knowledge, Eumenes, assembling his men, first
offered them his congratulations that "none had been found |132
among them who preferred the expectation of a reward stained with blood to the
obligation of his military oath." He then craftily added that these letters
had been forged by himself to sound their feelings; but that his life was in the
hands of them all; and that neither Antigonus nor any other general would be
willing to conquer by such means as would afford the worst of examples against
himself." By acting thus, he both preserved for the present the attachment
of such as were wavering, and made it likely that if anything similar should
happen in future, the soldiers would think that they were not tampered with by
the enemy, but sounded by their own general. All of them in consequence
zealously offered him their services for the guard of his person.

II. In the meantime Antigonus came up with his army, and having
pitched his camp, offered battle on the following day. Nor did Eumenes delay to
engage with him; but, being defeated, he fled to a fortress, where, when he saw
that he must submit to the hazard of a siege, he dismissed the greater part of
his army, lest he should either be delivered to the enemy by consent of the
multitude, or the sufferings of the siege should be aggravated by too great a
number. He then sent a deputation to Antipater, who was the only general that
seemed a match for the power of Antigonus, to entreat his aid; and Antigonus,
hearing that succour was despatched by him to Eumenes, gave up the siege.
Eumenes was thus for a time, indeed, relieved from fear of death; but, as so
great a portion of his army was sent away, he had no great hope of ultimate
safety. After taking everything into consideration, therefore, he thought it
best to apply to the Argyraspides of Alexander the Great, a body of men that had
never yet been conquered, and radiant with the glory of so many victories. But
the Argyraspides disdained all leaders in comparison with Alexander, and thought
service under other generals dishonourable to the memory of so great a monarch.
Eumenes had, therefore, to address them with flattery; he spoke to each of them
in the language of a suppliant, calling them his "fellow-soldiers,"
his "patrons," or his "companions in the dangers and exploits of
the east;" sometimes styling them "his refuge for protection, and his
only security;" saying that "they were the only troops by whose valour
the east had been subdued, the only troops that had gone beyond the achievements
of |133 Bacchus and the monuments of
Hercules; that by them Alexander had become great, by them had attained divine
honours and immortal glory;" and he begged them "to receive him, not
so much in the character of a general, as in that of a fellow-soldier, and to
allow him to be one of their body." Being received on these terms, he
gradually succeeded, first by giving them hints individually, and afterwards by
gently correcting whatever was done amiss, in gaining the sole command. Nothing
could be done in the camp without him; nothing managed without the aid of his
judgment.

III. At length, when it was announced that Antigonus was approaching
with his army, he obliged them to march into the field; where, slighting the
orders of their general, they were defeated by the bravery of the enemy. In this
battle they lost, with their wives and children, not only their glory from so
many wars, but also the booty obtained in their long service. But Eumenes, who
was the cause of their disaster,54 and had no other
hope of safety remaining, encouraged them after their repulse, assuring them
that "they had the superiority in courage, as five thousand of the enemy
had been slain by them; and that if they persevered in the war, their enemies
would gladly sue for peace;" adding, that "the losses, by which they
estimated their defeat, were two thousand women, and a few children and slaves,
which they might better recover by conquering, than by yielding the
victory." The Argyraspides, on the other hand, declared that "they
would neither attempt a retreat, after the loss of their property and wives, nor
would they war against their own children,"55
and pursued him with reproaches "for having involved them, when they were
returning home after so many years of completed service, and with the fruits of
so many enterprises, and when on the point of being disbanded, in fresh efforts
and vast struggles in the field; for having deluded them, when they were
recalled, as it were, from their own hearths, and from the very threshold of
their country, with vain promises; and for not allowing them, after having lost
all the gains of their fortunate service, to support quietly under their defeat
the burden of a poor and unhappy |134
old age." Immediately after, without the knowledge of their leaders,56
they sent deputies to Antigonus, requesting that "he would order what was
theirs 57 to be restored to them." Antigonus
promised that "he would restore what they asked, if they would deliver up
Eumenes to him." Hearing of this reply, Eumenes, with a few others,
attempted to flee, but being brought back, and finding his condition desperate,
he requested, as a great crowd gathered around him, to be allowed to address the
army for the last time.

IV. Being desired by them all to speak, and silence being made, and
his chains loosed, he held out his hand, fettered as he was, and said,
"Soldiers, ye behold the dress and equipments of your general, which it is
not any one of the enemy that has put upon me; for that would be even a
consolation to me; but it is you that have made me of a conqueror conquered, and
of a general a prisoner. Four times 58 within the
present year have you bound yourselves by oath to obey me; but on that point I
shall say nothing, for reproaches do not become the unfortunate. One favour only
I entreat, that, if the performance of Antigonus's promises depends on my life,
you would allow me to die among yourselves; for to him it signifies nothing how
or where I fall, and I shall be delivered from an ignominious end. If I obtain
this request, I release you from the oath by which you have so often devoted
yourselves to me. Or if you are ashamed to offer violence to me at my entreaty,
give me a sword, and permit your general to do for you,59
without the obligation of an oath, that which you have taken an oath to do for
your general." Not being able, however, to obtain his request, he changed
his tone of entreaty to that of anger, and exclaimed, "May the gods, then,
the avengers of perjury, look down in judgment upon you, ye accursed wretches,
and bring upon you such deaths as you have brought upon your leaders. It was
you, the same who now stand before me, that were lately sprinkled with the blood
of |135 Perdiccas, and that planned a
similar end for Antipater. You would even have killed Alexander himself, if it
had been possible for him to fall by a mortal hand: 60
what was next to it,61 you harassed him with your
mutinies. I, the last victim of your perfidy, now pronounce on you these curses
and imprecations: may you live your whole lives in poverty, far from your
country, in this camp where you are exiled; and may your own arms, by which you
have killed more generals of your own than of your enemies, sink you in utter
destruction." Then, full of indignation, he began to walk before his guards
towards the camp of Antigonus. The army followed, surrendering their general,
and being themselves made prisoners; and, leading up a triumph over themselves
to the camp of their conqueror, resigned to him, together with their own
persons, all their honour gained under king Alexander,62
and the palms and laurels of so long a warfare; and, that nothing might be
wanting to the procession, the elephants and auxiliaries of the east 63
brought up the rear. This single victory was so far more glorious to Antigonus
than so many other victories had been to Alexander, that whereas Alexander
subdued the east, Antigonus defeated those by whom the east had been subdued.
These conquerors of the world, then, Antigonus distributed among his army,
restoring to them what he had taken in the victory; and directed that Eumenes,
whom, from regard to their former friendship, he did not allow to come into his
presence, should be committed to the care of a guard.

V. In the meantime Eurydice, the wife of king Aridaeus, when she
learned that Polysperchon was returning from Greece into Macedonia, and that
Olympias was sent for by him, being prompted by a womanish emulation, and taking
advantage of her husband's weakness, whose duties she took upon herself, wrote
in the king's name to Polysperchon, desiring him "to deliver up the army to
Cassander, on whom the king had con ferred the government of the kingdom."
She made a similar |136 communication
to Antigonus, in a letter which she wrote to him in Asia. Cassander, attached to
her by such a favour, managed everything according to the will of that ambitious
woman. Marching into Greece, he made war upon several cities; by the calamities
of which, as by a fire in the neighbourhood, the Spartans were alarmed, and,
distrusting their power in arms, enclosed their city (which they had always
defended, not with walls, but with their swords) with works of defence, in
disregard both of the predictions of the oracles, and of the ancient glory of
their forefathers. Strange, that they should have so far degenerated from their
ancestors, that, when the valour of the citizens had been for many ages a wall
to the city, the citizens could not now think themselves secure unless they had
walls to shelter them. But during the course of these proceedings, the disturbed
state of Macedonia obliged Cassander to return home from Greece; for Olympias,
the mother of Alexander the Great, coming from Epirus to Macedonia, with
Aeacides, king of the Molossians, attending her, and being forbidden to enter
the country by Eurydice and king Aridaeus, the Macedonians being moved, either
by respect for the memory of her husband, or the greatness of her son, or by the
indignity with which she was treated, went over to Olympias, by whose order both
Eurydice and the king were put to death, he having held the kingdom six years
since the decease of Alexander.

VI. But neither did Olympias reign long; for having committed great
slaughter among the nobility throughout the country, like a furious woman rather
than a queen, she turned the favour with which she was regarded into hatred.
Hearing, therefore, of the approach of Cassander, and distrusting the
Macedonians, she retired, with her daughter-in-law Roxane, and her grandson
Hercules, to the city of Pydna. Deidamia, the daughter of king Aeacides, and
Thessalonice, her step-daughter, rendered illustrious by the name of Philip, who
was her father, and many others, wives of the leading men, a retinue showy
rather than serviceable, attended her on her journey. When the news of her
retreat was brought to Cassander, he marched immediately, with the utmost
expedition, to Pydna, and laid siege to the city. Olympias, distressed with
famine and the sword, and the wearisomeness of a long siege, surrendered herself
to the conqueror, stipulating only for life. But |137
Cassander, on summoning the people to an assembly, to inquire "what they
would wish to be done with Olympias," induced the parents of those whom she
had killed to put on mourning apparel, and expose her cruelties; when the
Macedonians, exasperated by their statements, decreed, without regard to her
former majesty, that she should be put to death; utterly unmindful that, by the
labours of her son and her husband, they had not only lived in security among
their neighbours, but had attained to vast power, and even to the conquest of
the world. Olympias, seeing armed men advancing towards her, bent upon her
destruction, went voluntarily to meet them, dressed in her regal apparel, and
leaning on two of her maids. The executioners, on beholding her, struck with the
recollection of her former royal dignity,64 and
with the names of so many of their kings, that occurred to their memory in
connexion with her, stood still, until others were sent by Cassander to despatch
her; she, at the same time, not shrinking from the sword or the blow, or crying
out like a woman, but submitting to death like the bravest of men, and suitably
to the glory of her ancient race, so that you might have perceived the soul of
Alexander in his dying mother. As she was expiring, too, she is said to have
settled her hair,65 and to have covered her feet
with her robe, that nothing unseemly might appear about her. After these events,
Cassander married Thessalonice, the daughter of king Aridaeus, and sent the son
of Alexander,66 with his mother to the citadel of
Amphipolis, to be kept under guard. |138

BOOK XV.

War of Antigonas against his opponents; defeat of his son Demetrius,
I.----Cruelty of Cassander towards the family of Alexander the Great;
successes of Antigonus, II.----Acts of Lysimachus, III.----Account of
Seleucus; of Sandrocottus; death of Antigonus, IV.

I. PERDICCAS and his brother, with Eumenes and Polysperchon, and other
leaders of the opposite party, being killed, the contention among the successors
of Alexander seemed to be at an end; when, on a sudden, a dispute arose among
the conquerors themselves; for Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus, demanding
that "the money taken amongst the spoil, and the provinces, should be
divided," Antigonus said that "he would admit no partners in the
advantages of a war of which he alone had undergone the perils." And that
he might seem to engage in an honourable contest with his confederates, he gave
out that "his object was to avenge the death of Olympias, who had been
murdered by Cassander, and to release the son of Alexander, his king, with his
mother, from their confinement at Amphipolis." On hearing this news,
Ptolemy and Cassander, forming an alliance with Lysimachus and Seleucus, made
vigorous preparations for war by land and sea. Ptolemy had possession of Egypt,
with the greater part of Africa, Cyprus, and Phoenicia. Macedonia and Greece
were subject to Cassander. Antigonus had taken possession of Asia and the
eastern countries.

Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, was defeated in the first engagement by
Ptolemy, at Gamala.67 In this action, the renown
gained by Ptolemy for his moderation was greater than that which he obtained
from the victory itself; for he let the friends of Demetrius depart, not only
with their baggage, but with presents in addition; and he restored Demetrius
himself all his private property, together with his family, making, at the same
time, this honourable declaration, that "he had not engaged in the war for
plunder, but for the maintenance of his own character, being indignant that when
the leaders of the opposite faction were conquered, Antigonus claimed the fruits
of their common victory for himself."

II. During these transactions, Cassander, returning from |139
Apollonia, fell in with the Antariatae,68 who,
having abandoned their country on account of the vast number of frogs and mice
that infested it, were seeking a settlement. Fearing that they might possess
themselves of Macedonia, he made a compact with them, received them as allies,
and assigned them lands at the extremity of the country. Afterwards, lest
Hercules, the son of Alexander, who had nearly completed his fourteenth year,
should be called to the throne on Macedonia through the influence of his
father's name, he sent secret orders that he should be put to death, together
with his mother Barsine, and that their bodies should be privately buried in the
earth lest the murder should be betrayed by a regular funeral.69
As if, too, he had previously incurred but small guilt, first in the case of the
king himself,70 and afterwards in that of his
mother Olympias and her son, he cut off his other son, and his mother Roxane,
with similar treachery; as though he could not obtain the throne of Macedonia,
to which he aspired, otherwise than by crime.

Ptolemy meanwhile engaged a second time with Demetrius at sea; 71
and, having lost his fleet, and left the victory to the enemy, fled back to
Egypt, whither Demetrius sent Leontiscus, the son of Ptolemy, his brother
Menelaus, and his friends, with all their baggage, being induced to this act by
like kindness previously shown 72 to himself; and
that it might appear that they were stimulated, not by hatred, but by desire of
glory and honour, they vied with one another, even amidst war itself, in
kindnesses and services. So much more |140
honourably were wars then conducted than private friendships are now maintained!
73

Antigonus, being elated with this victory, gave orders that he himself, as
well as his son Demetrius, should be styled king by the people. Ptolemy
also, that he might not appear of less authority among his subjects, was called king
by his army. Cassander and Lysimachus, too, when they heard of these
proceedings, assumed regal dignity themselves. They all abstained, however, from
taking the insignia of royalty, as long as any sons of their king survived. Such
forbearance was there in them, that, though they had tbe power, they yet
contentedly remained without the distinction of kings, while Alexander had a
proper heir. But Ptolemy and Cassander, and the other leaders of the opposite
faction, perceiving that they were individually weakened by Antigonus, while
each regarded the war, not as the common concern of all, but as merely affecting
himself, and all were unwilling to give assistance to one another, as if victory
would be only for one, and not for all of them, appointed, after encouraging
each other by letters, a time and place for an interview, and prepared for the
contest with united strength. Cassander, being unable to join in it, because of
a war near home, despatched Lysimachus to the support of his allies with a large
force.

III. Lysimachus was of a noble family in Macedonia, but was exalted
far above any nobility of birth by the proofs which he had given of personal
merit, which was so great, that he excelled all those by whom the east was
conquered, in greatness of mind, in philosophy, and in reputation for prowess.
For when Alexander the Great, in his anger, had pretended that Callisthenes the
philosopher, for his opposition to the Persian mode of doing obeisance, was
concerned in a plot that had been formed against him, and, by cruelly mangling
all his limbs, and cutting off his ears, nose, and lips, had rendered him a
shocking and miserable spectacle, and had had him carried about, also, shut up
in a cage with a dog, for a terror to others, Lysimachus, who was accustomed to
listen to Callisthenes, and to receive precepts of virtue from him, took pity |141
on so great a man, undergoing punishment, not for any crime, but for freedom of
speech,74 and furnished him with poison to relieve
him from his misery. At this act Alexander was so displeased, that he ordered
Lysimachus to be exposed to a fierce lion; but when the beast, furious at the
sight of him, had made a spring towards him, Lysimachus plunged his hand,
wrapped in his cloak, into the lion's mouth, and, seizing fast hold of his
tongue, killed him. This exploit being related to the king, his wonder at it
ended in pleasure, and he regarded Lysimachus with more affection than before,
on account of his extraordinary bravery. Lysimachus, likewise, endured the
ill-treatment of the king with magnanimity, as that of a parent. At last, when
all recollection of this affair was effaced from the king's mind, Lysimachus was
his only attendant in an excursion through vast heaps of sand, when he was in
pursuit of some flying enemies, and had left his guards behind him in
consequence of the swiftness of his horse. His brother Philip,75
having previously attempted to do him the same service, had expired in the
king's arms. Alexander, however, as he alighted from his horse, happened to
wound Lysimachus in the forehead with the point of his spear, so severely that
the blood could not by any means be stopped, till the king, taking off his
diadem, placed it on his head by way of closing the wound; an act which was the
first omen of royal dignity to Lysimachus. And after the death of Alexander,
when the provinces were divided among his successors, the most warlike nations
were assigned to Lysimachus as the bravest of them all; so far, by general
consent, had he the pre-eminence over the rest in military merit.

IV. Before the war with Antigonus was commenced by Ptolemy and his
allies, Seleucus, on a sudden, leaving the Greater Asia,76
came forward as a fresh enemy to Antigonus. The merit of Seleucus was well
known, and his birth had been attended with extraordinary circumstances. His
mother Laodice, being married to Antiochus, a man of eminence among Philip's
generals, seemed to herself, in a dream, to have conceived from a union with
Apollo, and, after becoming |142
pregnant, to have received from him, as a reward for her compliance, a ring, on
the stone of which was engraved an anchor, and which she was desired to give to
the child that she should bring forth. A ring similarly engraved, which was
found the next day in the bed, and the figure of an anchor, which was visible on
the thigh of Seleucus when he was born, made this dream extremely remarkable.
This ring Laodice gave to Seleucus, when he was going with Alexander to the
Persian war, informing him, at the same time, of his paternity. After the death
of Alexander, having secured dominion in the east, he built a city, where be
established a memorial of his twofold origin; for he called the city Antioch
from the name of his father Antiochus, and consecrated the plains near the city
to Apollo. This mark of his paternity continued also among his descendants; for
his sons and grandsons had an anchor on their thigh, as a natural proof of their
extraction.; After the division of the Macedonian empire among the followers of
Alexander, he carried on several wars in the east. He first took Babylon, and
then, his strength being increased by this success, subdued the Bactrians. He
next made an expedition into India, which, after the death of Alexander, had
shaken, as it were, the yoke of servitude from its neck, and put his governors
to death. The author of this liberation was Sandrocottus, who afterwards,
however, turned their semblance of liberty into slavery; for, making himself
king, he oppressed the people whom he had delivered from a foreign power, with a
cruel tyranny. This man was of mean origin, but was stimulated to aspire to
regal power by supernatural encouragement; for, having offended Alexander by his
boldness of speech, and orders being given to kill him, he saved himself by
swiftness of foot; and while he was lying asleep, after his fatigue, a lion of
great size having come up to him, licked off with his tongue the sweat that was
running from him, and after gently waking him, left him. Being first prompted by
this prodigy to conceive hopes of royal dignity, he drew together a band of
robbers, and solicited the Indians to support his new sovereignty. Some time
after, as he was going to war with the generals of Alexander, a wild elephant of
great bulk presented itself before him of its own accord, and, as if tamed down
to gentleness,77 took him on its back, and |143
became his guide in the war, and conspicuous in fields of battle. Sandrocottus,
having thus acquired a throne, was in possession of India, when Seleucus was
laying the foundations of his future greatness; who, after making a league with
him, and settling his affairs in the east, proceeded to join in the war against
Antigonus. As soon as the forces, therefore, of all the confederates were
united, a battle was fought,78 in which Antigonus
was slain, and his son Demetrius put to flight.

But the allied generals, after thus terminating the war with the enemy,
turned their arms again upon each other, and, as they could not agree about the
spoil, were divided into twoparties. Seleucus joined Demetrius, and
Ptolemy Lysimachus.Cassander dying, Philip, his son, succeeded him.
Thus new wars arose, as it were, from a fresh source, for Macedonia.

BOOK XVI.

Antipater, son of Cassander, puts his mother to death; Demetrius
Poliorcetes becomes master of Macedonia, I.----Demetrius is driven from
Macedonia; deaths of Antipater and Cassander, II.----War between Pyrrhus and
Lysimachus; account of the city Heraclea, in Pontus, III.----Tyranny of
Clearchus there, IV.----Death of Clearchus; subsequent condition of
Heraclea, V.

I. AFTER the deaths, in rapid succession,79
of Cassander and Philip, queen Thessalonice, the wife of Cassander, was soon
killed by her son Antipater, though she conjured him by the bosom of a mother to
spare her life. The cause of this matricide was that, in the division of the
kingdom between the brothers, she seemed to have favoured Alexander. This deed
appeared the more atrocious to every one, as there was no proof of injustice on
the part of the mother; although, indeed, in a case of matricide, no reason can
be alleged sufficient to justify the crime. Alexander, in consequence, resolving
to go to war |144 with his brother, to
avenge his mother's death, solicited aid from Demetrius; and Demetrius, in hopes
of seizing the throne of Macedonia, made no delay in complying with his request.
Lysimachus, alarmed at his approach, persuaded Antipater, his son-in-law, rather
to be reconciled to his brother than to allow his father's enemy to enter
Macedonia. Demetrius, therefore, finding that à reconciliation was commenced
between the brothers, removed Alexander by treachery, and, having seized on the
throne of Macedonia, called an assembly of the army, to defend himself before
them for the murder. He alleged that "his life had been first attempted by
Alexander, and that he had not contrived treachery, but prevented it; and that
he himself was the more rightful king of Macedonia, both from experience
attendant on greater age, and from other con siderations; for that his father 80
had been a follower of king Philip, and of Alexander the Great, in the whole of
their wars, and afterwards an attendant on the children of Alexander, and a
leader in the punishment of the revolters. That Antipater, on the other hand,
the grandfather of these young men, had always been more cruel as the governor
of the kingdom than the kings themselves; and that Cassander, their father, had
been the extirpator of the king's family, sparing neither women nor children,
and not resting till he had cut off the whole of the royal house. That vengeance
for these crimes, as he could not exact it from Cassander himself, had been
inflicted on his children; and that accordingly Philip and Alexander, if the
dead have any knowledge of human affairs, would not wish the murderers of them
and their issue, but their avengers, to fill the throne of Macedonia." The
people being pacified by these arguments, he was saluted king of Macedonia.
Lysimachus, too, being pressed with a war with Doricetes, king of Thrace, and
not wishing to have to fight with Demetrius at the same time, made peace with
him, resigning into his hands the other half of Macedonia, which had fallen to
the share of his son-in-law Antipater.

II. When Demetrius, therefore, supported by the whole strength of
Macedonia, was preparing to invade Asia, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus,
having experienced in the former contest how great the power of unanimity was,
formed an alliance a second time, and having joined their forces, carried |145
the war against Demetrius, into Europe. With these leaders Pyrrhus, king of
Epirus, united himself, as a friend and sharer in the war, hoping that Demetrius
might lose Macedonia not less easily than he had obtained it. Nor were his
expectations vain; for he himself, having corrupted Demetrius's army, and put
him to flight, seized on the throne of Macedonia.

During the course of these transactions, Lysimachus put to death his
son-in-law Antipater, who complained that he had been deprived of the throne of
Macedonia by the treachery of his father-in-law, and put his daughter Eurydice,
who had joined with him in his complaints, into prison; and thus the whole house
of Cassander made atonement to Alexander the Great, whether for killing himself
or destroying his offspring, partly by violent deaths, partly by other
sufferings, and partly by shedding the blood of one another.

Demetrius, surrounded by so many armies, preferred, when he might have fallen
honourably, to make an ignominious surrender to Seleucus. At the termination of
the war died Ptolemy, after having attained great glory by his military
exploits. Contrary to the custom among nations, he had resigned his kingdom,
before his illness, to the youngest of his sons, and had stated his reasons for
that proceeding to the people, who showed themselves no less indulgent in
accepting the son for their king than the father had proved himself in
delivering the kingdom to him. Among other instances of mutual affection between
the father and the son, the following had procured the young man favour from the
people, that the father, having publicly resigned the throne to him, had done
duty as a private soldier among his guards, thinking it more honour to be the
father of a king than to possess any kingdom whatsoever.

III. But the evil of discord, constantly arising among equals, had
produced a war between Lysimachus and King Pyrrhus, who had just before been
allies against Demetrius. Lysimachus, gaining the advantage, had expelled
Pyrrhus, and made himself master of Macedonia. He then made war on Thrace, and
afterwards on Heraclea, a city of which the origin and the subsequent fortunes
were objects of wonder: for when the Baeotians were suffering from a pestilence,
the oracle at Delphi had told them, that "they must plant a |146
colony in the country of Pontus, dedicated to Hercules. But as, through dread of
a long and dangerous voyage, and all the people preferring death in their own
country, the matter was neglected, the Phocians made war upon them; and after
suffering from unsuccessful struggles with that people, they had recourse to the
oracle a second time. The answer which they received was, that "what was a
remedy for the pestilence would also be a remedy for the war." Raising
therefore a body of colonists, and sailing to Pontus, they built the city
Heraclea; and as they had been led to that settlement by the guidance of fate,
they soon acquired great power. In process of time the city had many wars with
its neighbours, and many dissensions among its own people. Among other noble
acts that they performed, the following is one of the most remarkable. When the
Athenians were at the height of power, and, after the overthrow of the Persians,
had imposed a tax on Greece and Asia for the support of a fleet, and when all
were promptly contributing to the maintenance of their safety, the Heracleans
alone, from friendship for the kings of Persia, refused to pay. Lamachus was
accordingly despatched by the Athenians with an army to exact from them what was
withheld; but leaving his ships on the coast, and going to ravage the lands of
the Heracleans, he lost his fleet, with the greater part of his army, by
shipwreck, in a tempest that came on suddenly. As he was not able, therefore, to
return by sea, from having lost his ships, and did not dare, with so small a
body of men, to return by land through so many warlike nations, the Heracleans,
thinking this a more honourable opportunity for kindness than for revenge, sent
the invaders away with a supply of provisions and troops to protect them;
deeming the devastation of their lands no loss, if they could but make those
their friends who had formerly been their enemies.

IV. Among many other evils they endured also that of tyranny; for
when, on the populace violently clamouring for an abolition of debts, and a
division of the lands of the rich, the subject was long discussed in the senate,
and no settlement of it was devised, they at last sought assistance against the
commons, who were grown riotous by too long idleness, from Timotheus general of
the Athenians, and afterwards from Epaminondas general of the Thebans. As, |147
both, however, refused their request, they had recourse to Clearchus, whom they
themselves had exiled; such being the urgency of their distresses, that they
recalled to the guardian ship of his country him whom they had forbidden to
enter his country. But Clearchus, being rendered more desperate by his
banishment, and regarding the dissension among the people as a means of securing
to himself the government, first sought a secret interview with Mithridates,81
the enemy of his countrymen, and made a league with him on the understanding
that when he was re-established in his country, he should, on betraying the city
into his hands, be made lieutenant-governor of it. But the treachery which he
had conceived against his countrymen, he afterwards turned against Mithridates
himself; for on returning from banishment, to be as it were the arbiter of the
disputes in the city, he, at the time appointed for delivering the town to
Mithridates, made Mithridates himself prisoner, with a party of his friends, and
released him from captivity only on the receipt of a large sum of money. And as,
in this case, he suddenly changed himself from a friend into an enemy, so, in
regard to his countrymen, he soon, from a supporter of the senate's cause,
became a patron of the common people, and not only inflamed the populace against
those who had conferred his power upon him, and by whom he had been recalled
into his country and established in the citadel, but even exercised upon his
benefactors the most atrocious inflictions of tyrannic cruelty. Summoning the
people to an assembly, he declared that "he would no longer support the
senate in their proceedings against the populace, but would even interpose his
authority, if they persisted in their former severities; and that, if the people
thought themselves able to check the tyranny of the senate, he would retire with
his soldiers, and take no further part in their dissensions; but that, if they
distrusted their ability to make resistance, he would not be wanting to aid them
in taking revenge. They might therefore," he added, "determine among
themselves; they might bid him withdraw, if they pleased, or might request him
to stay as a sharer in the popular cause." The people, induced by these
fair speeches, conferred on him the supreme authority, and, while they were
incensed at the power of the senate, surrendered |148
themselves, with their wives and children, as slaves to the power of a single
tyrant. Clearchus then apprehended sixty senators (the rest had taken flight),
and threw them into prison. The people rejoiced that the senate was overthrown,
and especially that it had fallen by means of a leader among the senators, and
that, by a reverse of fortune, their support was turned to their destruction.
Clearchus, by threatening all his prisoners with death, made the price offered
for their ransom the higher; and, after receiving from them large sums of money,
as if he would secretly withdraw them from the violence threatened by the
people, despoiled those of their lives whom he had previously despoiled of their
fortunes.

V. Learning, soon after, that war was prepared against him by those
who had made their escape (several cities being moved by pity to espouse their
cause), he gave freedom to their slaves; and that no affliction might be wanting
to distress the most honourable families, he obliged their wives and daughters
to marry their slaves, threatening death to such as refused, that he might thus
render the slaves more attached to himself, and less reconcileable to their
masters. But such marriages were more intolerable to the women than immediate
death; and many, in consequence, killed themselves before the nuptial rites were
celebrated, and many in the midst of them, first killing their new husbands, and
delivering themselves from dishonourable sufferings by a spirit of noble virtue.
A battle was then fought, in which the tyrant, being victorious, dragged such of
the senators as he took prisoners before the faces of their countrymen in
triumph. Returning into the city, he threw some into prison, stretched others on
the rack, and put others to death; and not a place in the city was unvisited by
the tyrant's cruelty. Arrogance was added to severity, insolence to inhumanity.
From a course of continued good fortune, he sometimes forgot that he was a man,
sometimes called himself the son of Jupiter. When he appeared in public, a
golden eagle, as a token of his parentage, was carried before him; he wore a
purple robe, buskins like kings in tragedies, and a crown of gold. His son he
named Ceraunos,82 to mock the gods, not only with
false statements, but with impious names. Two noble youths, Chion and Leonides,
incensed that he should dare to commit such outrages, and desiring to |149
deliver their country, formed a conspiracy to put him to death. They were
disciples of Plato the philosopher, and being desirous to exhibit to their
country the virtue in which they were daily instructed by the precepts of their
master, placed fifty of their relations, as if they were their attendants, in
ambush; while they themselves, in the character of men who had a dispute to be
settled, went into the citadel to the tyrant.83
Gaining admission, as being well known, the tyrant, while he was listening
attentively to the one that spoke first, was killed by the other. But as their
accomplices were too late in coming to their support, they were overpowered by
the guards; and hence it happened that though the tyrant was killed, their
country was not liberated. Satyrus, the brother of Clearchus, made himself
tyrant in a similar way; and for many years, with various successive changes,
the Heracleans continued under the yoke of tyrants.

I. ABOUT the same time there was an earthquake in the regions round
the Hellespont and the Chersonese; 84 but the chief
effect of it was, that the city of Lysimachia, founded two and twenty years
before by king Lysimachus, was sunk in ruins; a prodigy which portended
disasters to Lysimachus and his family, destruction to his kingdom, and calamity
to the disturbed provinces. Nor was fulfilment wanting to these omens; for, in a
short time after, conceiving towards his son Agathocles (whom he had appointed
to succeed him on the throne, and through whose exertions he had managed several
wars with success), a hatred unnatural in him not only as a father but |150
as a man, he took him off by poison, using as his agent in the affair his
step-mother Arsinoë. This was the first commencement of his calamities, the
prelude to approaching rain; for executions of several great men were added to
the murder of his son, who were put to death for expressing concern at the young
prince's fate; and, in consequence, both those about the court who escaped this
cruelty, and those who were in command of the troops, began at once to desert to
Seleucus, and incite him to make war upon Lysimachus; an enterprise to which he
was already inclined from a desire to emulate his glory. This was the last
contest between the fellow soldiers of Alexander; and the two combatants were
reserved, as it were, for an example of the influence of fortune. Lysimachus was
seventy-four years old; Seleucus seventy-seven. But at this age they both had
the fire of youth, and an insatiable desire of power; for though they alone
possessed the whole world,85 they yet thought
themselves confined within narrow limits, and measured their course of life, not
by their length of years, but by the extent to which they carried their
dominion.

II. In this war, Lysimachus (who had previously lost, by various
chances of fortune, fifteen children) died, with no small bravery, and crowned
the ruin of his family. Seleucus, overjoyed at such a triumph, and what he
thought greater than the triumph, that he alone survived of all Alexander's
staff,86 the conqueror of conquerors, boasted that
"this was not the work of man, but a favour from the gods," little
thinking that he himself was shortly after to be an instance of human
instability; for in the course of about seven months, he was treacherously
surprised by Ptolemy,87 whose sister Lysimachus had
married, and put to death, losing the kingdom of Macedonia, which he had taken
from Lysimachus together with his life.

Ptolemy, being ambitious to please his subjects, both for the honour of the
memory of the great Ptolemy his father, |151
and for the sake of palliating the revenge which he had taken on behalf of
Lysimachus, resolved, in the first place, to conciliate the sons of Lysimachus,
and sought a marriage with their mother Arsinoë, his sister,88
promising to adopt the young men, so that, when he should succeed to the throne
of their father, they might not venture, through respect for their mother, or
the influence of the name of father, to attempt anything against him. He
solicited, too, by letter, the friendship of his brother the king of Egypt,
professing that "he laid aside all feelings of resentment at being deprived
of his father's kingdom, and that he would no longer ask that from a brother
which he had more honourably obtained from his father's enemy." 89
He also in every way flattered Nicomedes,90 that as
he was about to have a war with Antigonus, the son of Demetrius, and Antiochus
the son of Seleucus, he might not come upon him as a third enemy. Nor was
Pyrrhus of Epirus, neglected by him, a king who would be of great assistance to
whichsoever side he attached himself, and who, while he desired to spoil them
one by one, sought the favour of all. On going to assist the Tarentines,
therefore, against the Romans, he desired of Antigonus the loan of vessels to
transport his army into Italy; of Antiochus, who was better provided with wealth
than with men, a sum of money; and of Ptolemy, some troops of Macedonian
soldiers. Ptolemy, who had no excuse for holding back for want of forces,
supplied him with five thousand infantry, four thousand cavalry, and fifty
elephants, but for not more than two years' service. In return for this favour,
Pyrrhus, after marrying the daughter of Ptolemy, appointed him guardian of his
kingdom in his absence; lest, on carrying the flower of his army into Italy, he
should leave his dominions a prey to his enemies.

III. But since I have come to speak of Epirus,91
a few |152 particulars should be
premised concerning the rise of that kingdom. The first regal power in this
country was that of the Molossi. Afterwards Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, having
been deprived of his father's dominions 92 during
his absence in the Trojan war, settled in these parts; the inhabitants of which
were first called Pyrrhidae, and afterwards Epirots. This Pyrrhus, going to the
temple of Jupiter at Dodona to consult the oracle, seized there by force
Lanassa, the granddaughter of Hercules, and by a marriage with her had eight
children. Of his daughters he gave some in marriage to the neighbouring princes,
and by means of these alliances acquired great power. He gave to Helenus,93
the son of King Priam, for his eminent services, the kingdom of the Chaonians,
and Andromache the widow of Hector in marriage, after she had been his own wife,
he having received her at the division of the Trojan spoil. Shortly after he was
slain at Delphi, at the very altar of Apollo, by the treachery of Orestes the
son of Agamemnon. His successor was his son Pielus. The throne afterwards passed
in regular descent to Arrybas, over whom, as he was an orphan, and the only
survivor of a noble family, guardians were publicly appointed, the concern of
all being so much the greater to preserve and educate him. He was also sent to
Athens for the sake of instruction; and, as he was more learned than his
predecessors, so he became more popular with his subjects. He was the first,
accordingly, that established laws, a senate, annual magistrates, and a regular
form of government; and as a settlement was found for the people by Pyrrhus, so
a more civilized way of life was introduced by Arrybas. A son of this king was
Neoptolemus, the father of Olympias (mother of Alexander the great), and of
Alexander, who occupied the throne of Epirus after him, and died in Italy in a
war with the Bruttii. On the death of Alexander his brother Aeacides became
king, who, by wearying his people with constant wars against the Macedonians,
incurred |153 their dislike, and was in
consequence driven into exile, leaving his little son Pyrrhus, about two years
old, in the kingdom. The child, too, being sought for by the populace to be put
to death, through their hatred to the father, was concealed and carried off into
Illyricum, and delivered to Beroë, who was the wife of king Glaucias, and of
the family of the Aeacidae, to be brought up. This king, moved either by pity
for the boy's misfortunes, or by his infantine caresses, protected him for a
long time against Cassander, king of Macedonia, (who demanded him with menaces
of war,) having the kindness also to adopt him for his better security. The
Epirots, being moved by these acts, and turning their hatred into pity* brought
him back, when he was eleven years old, into the kingdom, appointing him
guardians to keep the throne for him till he became of age. When he grew up he
engaged in many wars, and, by a train of success, attained such eminence as a
leader, that he was the only man who was thought capable of defending the
Tarentines against the Romans.

BOOK XVIII.

War of Pyrrhus with, the Romans, I.----The Romans refuse aid from
Carthage; make peace with Pyrrhus; send an embassy to Ptolemy Philadelphus;
Cineas; Pyrrhus retires to Sicily, II.---- Account of Tyre; rise of Strato,
III.----Dido leaves Tyre, IV.----Founds Carthage; its prosperity,
V.----Iarbas; death of Dido; human sacrifices at Carthage, VI.----Disasters
of the Carthaginians in Sardinia; mutiny of the army; Malchus; Carthalo,
VII.

I. PYRRHUS, king of Epirus, therefore, being solicited by a second
embassy from the Tarentines, to which were added the entreaties of the Samnites
and Lucanians, who likewise needed assistance against the Romans, was induced to
comply, not so much by the prayers of the suitors, as by the hope of making
himself master of Italy, and promised to come to them with an army. When his
thoughts, indeed, were once directed to that enterprise, the examples of his
predecessors began to impel him violently towards it, in order that he might not
appear inferior to his uncle Alexander, whom the Tarentines had had for a
defender against the Bruttii, or to have less spirit than Alexander the Great,
who had subdued the east in |154 so
distant an expedition from his native country. Having left his son Ptolemy,
therefore, who was but fifteen years old, as guardian of his kingdom, he landed
his army in the harbour of Tarentum, taking with him his two younger sons,
Alexander and Helenus, as a comfort to him in so long a voyage. The Roman
consul, Valerius Laevinus, hearing of his arrival, and hastening to come to
battle with him before the forces of his allies were assembled, led forth his
army into the field. Nor did the king, although he was inferior in number of
forces, hesitate to engage. But as the Romans were getting the advantage, the
appearance of the elephants, previously unknown to them, made them at first
stand amazed, and afterwards quit the field; and the strange monsters of the
Macedonians 94 at once conquered the conquerors.
The triumph of the enemy, however, was not bloodless; for Pyrrhus himself was
severely wounded, and a great number of his soldiers killed; and he had more
glory from his victory than pleasure. Many cities of Italy, moved by the result
of this battle, surrendered to Pyrrhus; among others also Locri, betraying the
Roman garrison, revolted to him. Of the prisoners, Pyrrhus sent back two hundred
to Rome without ransom, that the Romans, after experiencing his valour, might
experience also his generosity. Some days after, when the forces of his allies
had come up, he fought a second battle with the Romans, of which the event was
similar to that of the former.

II. In the meantime, Mago, general of the Carthaginians, being sent to
the aid of the Romans with a hundred and twenty ships, went to the senate,
saying that "the Carthaginians were much concerned that they should be
distressed by war in Italy from a foreign prince; and that for this reason he
had been despatched to assist them; that, as they were attacked by a foreign
enemy, they might be supported by foreign aid." The thanks of the senate
were given to the Carthaginians, and the succours sent back. But Mago, with the
cunning of a Carthaginian, went privately, a few days after, to Pyrrhus, as if
to be a peace-maker from the people of Carthage, but in reality to discover the
king's views with regard to Sicily, to which island it was reported that he was |155
sent for; since the Carthaginians had the same reason 95
for sending assistance to the Romans, namely that Pyrrhus might be detained by a
war with that people in Italy, and prevented from crossing over into Sicily.
During the course of these transactions, Fabricius Luscinus, being commissioned
by the senate of Rome, had made peace with Pyrrhus. To ratify the treaty, Cineas
was sent to Rome by Pyrrhus with valuable presents, but found nobody's house
open for their reception. To this instance of Roman incorruptibility, another,
very similar, happened about the same time. Certain ambassadors, who were sent
by the senate into Egypt, having refused some costly presents offered them by
Ptolemy, and being invited to supper some days after, golden crowns were sent to
them, which, from respect to the king, they accepted, but placed them the next
day on the king's statues. Cineas, bringing word that "the treaty with the
Romans was broken off by Appius Claudius," and being asked by Pyrrhus
"what sort of city Rome was," replied that "it appeared to him a
city of kings." Soon after, ambassadors from the Sicilians arrived, to
offer Pyrrhus the dominion of the whole island, which was harassed by constant
wars with the Carthaginians. Leaving his son Alexander, therefore, at Locri, and
securing the cities of his allies with strong garrisons, Pyrrhus transported his
army into Sicily.

III. Since I come to speak of the Carthaginians, a short account shall
be given of their origin, tracing back, to some extent, the history of the
Tyrians, whose misfortunes were much to be pitied. The nation of the Tyrians was
founded by the Phaenicians, who, suffering from an earthquake, and abandoning
their country, settled at first near the Syrian lake, 96
and afterwards on the coast near the sea, where they built a city, which, from
the abundance of fish, they named Sidon, for so the Phaenicians call a fish in
their language. Many years after, their city being stormed by the king of the |156
Ascalonians,97 sailing away to the place where Tyre
stands, they built that city the year before the fall of Troy. Here, harassed
for a long time, and in various ways, by attacks from the Persians, they
resisted, indeed, successfully, but, as their strength was exhausted, they
suffered the most cruel treatment from their slaves, who were then
extraordinarily numerous. These traitors, having entered into a conspiracy,
killed their masters and all the free people of the city, and thus, becoming
masters of the place, took possession of the houses of their owners, assumed the
government, appropriated wives to themselves, and begot, what they themselves
were not, freemen. Out of so many thousands of slaves, there was one who was
moved to compassion by the mild disposition of his aged master and the hard
fortune of his little son, and looked upon them, not with savage fierceness, but
with humanity, affection, and pity. He put them out of the way, therefore, as if
they had been killed; and when the slaves came to deliberate about the condition
of their government, and had resolved that a king should be elected from their
own body, and that he should be preferred, as most acceptable to the gods, who
should first see the rising sun, he mentioned the matter to Strato (for that was
the name of his master), who was then in concealment. Being instructed by him,
and proceeding with the rest, about the middle of the night, to a certain plain,
he alone, when they were all looking towards the east, kept his eye directed
towards the west. This at first seemed madness to the others, to look in the
west for the rising sun; but when day began to advance, and the rising luminary
to shine on the highest eminences of the city, he, while all the rest were
watching to see the sun itself, was the first to point out to them the sunshine
on the loftiest pinnacle of the town. This thought seemed above the wit of a
slave; and when they asked him who had put it into his head, he confessed that
it was his master. It was then seen how far the abilities of freemen surpass
those of slaves, who, though they may be first in viciousness, are not first in
wisdom. The old man and his son were therefore spared; and the slaves, thinking
that they had been preserved by the interposition of some deity, made Strato
king. After his death, the throne descended to his son, and |157
subsequently to his grandsons. This atrocity of these slaves was much noticed,
and was a terrible example to the whole world. Alexander the Great, when he was
prosecuting his wars, some time after, in the east, having taking the city,
crucified, as an avenger of the general safety, and in memory, of the former
massacre, all those who survived the siege; preserving from injury only the
family of Strato, and restoring the throne 98 to
his descendants; and sending to the island, at the same time, inhabitants that
were free-born and guiltless, that, as the race of slaves was extirpated, an
entirely new generation might be established in the city.

IV. The Tyrians, being thus settled under the auspices of Alexander,
quickly grew powerful by frugality and industry.

Before the massacre of the masters by the slaves, when they abounded in
wealth and population, they sent a portion of their youth into Africa, and
founded Utica. Meanwhile their king died at Tyre, appointing his son Pygmalion
and his daughter Elissa, a maiden of extraordinary beauty, his heirs. But the
people gave the throne to Pygmalion, who was quite a boy. Elissa married
Acerbas, 99 her uncle, who was priest of Hercules,
a dignity next to that of the king. Acerbas had great but concealed riches,
having laid up his gold, for fear of the king, not in his house, but in the
earth; a fact of which, though people had no certain knowledge of it, report was
not silent. Pygmalion, excited by the account, and forgetful of the laws of
humanity, murdered his uncle, who was also his brother-in-law, without the least
regard to natural affection. Elissa long entertained a hatred to her brother for
his crime, but at last, dissembling her detestation, and assuming mild looks for
the time, she secretly contrived a mode of flight, admitting into her confidence
some of the leading men of the city, in whom she saw that there was a similar
hatred of the king, and an equal desire to escape. She then addressed her
brother in such a way as to deceive him; pretending that "she had a desire
to remove to his house, in order that the home of her husband might no longer
revive in her, when she was desirous to forget him, the oppressive recollection
of her sorrows, and that the sad |158
remembrances of him might no more present themselves to her eyes." To these
words of his sister, Pygmalion was no unwilling listener, thinking that with her
the gold of Acerbas would come to him. But Elissa put the attendants, who were
sent by the king to assist in her removal, on board some vessels in the early
part of the evening, and sailing out into the deep, made them throw some loads
of sand, put up in sacks, as if it was money, into the sea. Then, with tears and
mournful ejaculations, she invoked Acerbas, entreating that "he would
favourably receive his wealth which he had left behind him, and accept that as
an offering to his shade, which he had found to be the cause of his death."
Next she addressed the attendants, and said that "death had long been
desired by her, but as for them, cruel torments and a direful end awaited them,
for having disappointed the tyrant's avarice of those treasures, in the hopes of
obtaining which he had committed fratricide." Having thus struck terror
into them all, she took them with her as companions of her flight. Some bodies
of senators, too, who were ready against that night, came to join her, and
having offered a sacrifice to Hercules, whose priest Acerbas had been, proceeded
to seek a settlement in exile.

V. Their first landing place was the isle of Cyprus, where the priest
of Jupiter, with his wife and children, offered himself to Elissa, at the
instigation of the gods, as her companion and the sharer of her fortunes,
stipulating for the perpetual honour of the priesthood for himself and his
descendants. The stipulation was received as a manifest omen of good fortune. It
was a custom among the Cyprians to send their daughters, on stated days before
their marriage, to the sea-shore, to prostitute themselves, and thus procure
money for their marriage portions, and to pay, at the same time, offerings to
Venus for the preservation of their chastity in time to come. Of these Elissa
ordered about eighty to be seized and taken on board, that her men might have
wives, and her city a population. During the course of these transactions,
Pygmalion, having heard of his sister's flight, and preparing to pursue her with
unfeeling hostility, was scarcely induced by the prayers of his mother and the
menaces of the gods to remain quiet; the inspired augurs warning him that
"he would not escape with impunity, if he interrupted the founding of a
city that was to become the most prosperous in the |159
world." By this means some respite was given to the fugitives; and Elissa,
arriving in a gulf of Africa, attached the inhabitants of the coast, who
rejoiced at the arrival of foreigners, and the opportunity of bartering
commodities with them, to her interest. Having then bargained for a piece of
ground, as much as could be covered 100 with an
ox-hide, where she might refresh her companions, wearied with their long voyage,
until she could conveniently resume her progress, she directed the hide to be
cut into the thinnest possible strips, and thus acquired a greater portion of
ground than she had apparently demanded; whence the place had afterwards the
name of Byrsa. The people of the neighbourhood subsequently gathering about her,
bringing, in hopes of gain, many articles to the strangers for sale, and
gradually fixing their abodes there, some resemblance of a city arose from the
concourse. Ambassadors from the people of Utica, too, brought them presents as
relatives, and exhorted them "to build a city where they had chanced to
obtain a settlement." An inclination to detain the strangers was felt also
by the Africans; and, accordingly, with the consent of all, Carthage was
founded, an annual tribute being fixed for the ground which it was to occupy. At
the commencement of digging the foundations an ox's head was found, which was an
omen that the city would be wealthy, indeed, but laborious and always enslaved.
It was therefore removed to another place, where the head of a horse was found,
which, indicating that the people would be warlike and powerful, portended an
auspicious site. In a short time, as the surrounding people came together at the
report, the inhabitants became numerous, and the city itself extensive.

VI. When the power of the Carthaginians, from success in their
proceedings, had risen to some height, Hiarbas, king of the Maxitani,101
desiring an interview with ten of the chief men of Carthage, demanded Elissa in
marriage, denouncing war in case of a refusal. The deputies, fearing to report
this message to the queen, acted towards her with Carthaginian artifice, |160
saying that "the king asked for some person to teach him and his Africans a
more civilized way of life, but who could be found that would leave his
relations and go to barbarians, and people that were living like wild
beasts?" Being then reproached by the queen, "in case they refused a
hard life for the benefit of their country, to which, should circumstances
require, their life itself was due," they disclosed the king's message,
saying that "she herself, if she wished her city to be secure, must do what
she required of others." Being caught by this subtlety, she at last said
(after calling for a long time with many tears and mournful lamentations on the
name of her husband Acerbas), that "she would go whither the fate of her
city called her." Taking three months for the accomplishment of her
resolution, and having raised a funeral pile at the extremity of the city, she
sacrificed many victims, as if she would appease the shade of her husband, and
make her offerings to him before her marriage; and then, taking a sword, she
ascended the pile, and, looking towards the people, said, that "she would
go to her husband as they had desired her," and put an end to her life with
the sword. As long as Carthage remained unconquered, she was worshipped as a
goddess. This city was founded seventy-two years 102
before Rome; but while the bravery of its inhabitants made it famous in war, it
was internally disturbed with various troubles, arising from civil differences.
Being afflicted, among other calamities, with a pestilence, they adopted a cruel
religious ceremony, an execrable abomination, as a remedy for it; for they
immolated human beings as victims, and brought children (whose age excites pity
even in enemies) to the altars, entreating favour of the gods by shedding the
blood of those for whose life the gods are generally wont to be entreated.

VII. In consequence of the gods, therefore, being rendered |161
adverse by such atrocities, after they had long fought unsuccessfully in Sicily,
and had transferred the war into Sardinia, they were defeated in a great battle
with the loss of the greater part of their army; a disaster for which they
sentenced their general Malchus,103 under whose
conduct they had both conquered a part of Sicily and achieved great exploits
against the Africans, to remain in exile with the portion of his army that
survived. The soldiers, indignant at this sentence, sent deputies to Carthage,
to beg, in the first place, permission for them to return, and pardon for their
ill success in the field; and, in the second place, to announce that "what
they could not obtain by entreaty, they would obtain by force of arms." The
prayers and threats of the deputies being alike slighted, the troops, after some
days, went on board ship, and came under arms to the city, when they called gods
and men to witness that "they were not come to overthrow, but to recover
their country; and that they would show their countrymen that it was not valour,
but fortune, that had failed them in the preceding war." By stopping the
supplies, and besieging the city, they reduced the Carthaginians to the greatest
despair. At this time Cartalo, the son of Malchus the exiled general, returning
by his father's camp from Tyre (whither he had been sent by the Carthaginians,
to carry the tenth of the plunder of Sicily, which his father had taken, to
Hercules), and being desired by his father to wait on him, replied that "he
would discharge his religious duties to the public,104
before those of merely private obligation." His father, though he was
indignant at his conduct, was nevertheless afraid to obstruct him in the
performance of his religious offices. Some days after, Cartalo, having obtained
leave of absence from the people, and returning to his father, presented himself
before all the people, dressed in the purple and fillets of his sacerdotal
dignity, when his father took him aside, and said, "Hast thou dared, most
unnatural wretch, to appear before so many of thy miserable countrymen, thus
arrayed in purple and gold, and to enter, with all the marks of peaceful
prosperity about thee, and exulting as it were in triumph, into |162
this sad and mournful camp? Couldst thou display thyself nowhere else to thy
fellow creatures? Was no place fitter for it than where the misery of thy
father, and the distress of his unhappy banishment, were to be seen? I have to
add, too, that when thou wast summoned a short time ago, thou proudly
despisedst, I do not say thy father, but certainly the general of thy
countrymen. And what else dost thou exhibit in that purple and those crowns, but
the titles of my victories? Since thou, therefore, acknowledgest nothing in thy
father but the name of an exile, I also will assume the character, not of a
father, but of a general, and will make such an example of thee, that no one may
hereafter dare to sport with the miseries and sorrows of a parent." He
accordingly ordered him to be nailed, in all his finery, on a high cross within
view of the city. A few days after he took Carthage, and assembling the people,
complained of the injustice of his banishment, pleaded necessity as his excuse
for making war upon them, and added that "being content with his victory,
and the punishment of the authors of their country's misery,105
he granted a free pardon for his unjust banishment to all the rest." Having
accordingly put ten senators to death, he left the city to the government of its
laws. But being accused himself, shortly after, of aspiring to be king, he paid
the penalty of his twofold cruelty to his son and his country. He was succeeded,
as commander-in-chief, by Mago, by whose exertions the power of Carthage, the
extent of its territories, and its military glory, was much increased. |163

BOOK XIX

Hasdrubal and Hamilcar, sons of Mago; Hasdrubal dies in Sardinia; war of
the Carthaginians in Sicily, I.----The Carthaginians defeated in Sicily;
Himilco succeeds Hamilcar; pestilence in the army, II. ----Return of Himilco
to Carthage; his speech, and death, III.

I. MAGO, the general of the Carthaginians, after having been the
first, by regulating their military discipline, to lay the foundations of the
Punic power, and after establishing the strength of the state, not less by his
skill in the art of war than by his personal prowess, died, leaving behind him
two sons, Hasdrubal and Hamilcar, who, pursuing the honourable course of their
father, were heirs to his greatness as well as to his name. Under their
generalship war was made upon Sardinia; and a contest was also maintained
against the Africans, who demanded tribute for many years for the ground on
which the city stood. But as the cause of the Africans was the more just, their
fortune was likewise superior, and the struggle with them was ended----not by
exertions in the field----by the payment of a sum of money. In Sardinia
Hasdrubal was severely wounded, and died there, leaving the command to his
brother Hamilcar; and not only the mourning throughout his country, but the fact
that he had held eleven dictatorships and enjoyed four triumphs,106
rendered his death an object of general notice. The courage of the enemy, too,
was raised by it, as if the power of the Carthaginians had expired with their
general. The people of Sicily, therefore, applying, in consequence of the
perpetual depredations of the Carthaginians, to Leonidas, the brother of the
king of Sparta, for aid, a grievous war broke out, which continued, with various
success, for a long period.

During the course of these transactions, ambassadors came to Carthage from
Darius king of Persia, bringing an edict, by which the Carthaginians were
forbidden to offer human sacrifices, and to eat dog's flesh, and were commanded
to burn the |164 bodies of the dead
rather than bury them in the earth; 107 and
requesting, at the same time, assistance against Greece, on which Darius was
about to make war. 108 The Carthaginians declined
giving him aid, on account of their continual wars with their neighbours, but,
that they might not appear uncompliant in every thing, willingly submitted to
the decree.

II. Hamilcar, meanwhile, was killed in battle in Sicily, leaving three
sons, Himilco, Hanno, and Gisco. Hasdrubal also had the same number of sons,
Hannibal, Hasdrubal, and Sappho. 109 By these the
affairs of the Carthaginians were managed at this period. War was made upon the
Moors, a contest was maintained with the Numidians, and the Africans were
compelled to remit the tribute paid for the building of the city. At length,
however, as so numerous a family of commanders was dangerous to the liberty of
the state, since they themselves managed and decided every thing, a hundred
judges were chosen out of the senate, who were to demand of the generals, when
they returned from war, an account of their proceedings, in order that, under
this control, they might exercise their command 110
in war with a regard to the judicature and laws at home. |165

In Sicily, Himilco succeeded as general in the room of Hamilcar, but, after
fighting several successful battles, both by land and sea, and taking many
towns, he suddenly lost his army by the influence of a pestilential
constellation.111 When the news of this arrived at
Carthage, the country was overwhelmed with grief, and all places rung with
lamentations, as if the city had been taken by an enemy; private houses were
closed, the temples of the gods were shut, all religious ceremonies were
intermitted, and all private business suspended. They all then crowded to the
harbour, and inquired of the few that came out of their ships, survivors of the
calamity, respecting their relatives. But when, after wavering hope, dread
attended with suspense, and uncertain apprehensions of bereavement, the loss of
their relatives became known to the unhappy inquirers, the groans of mourners,
and the cries and sorrowful lamentations of unhappy mothers, were heard along
the whole shore.

III. In this state of things, the bereaved general came out of his
ship, ungirt, and in a mean dress like that of a slave, at eight of whom the
troops of mourners gathered into one body. He, lifting up his hands to heaven,
sometimes bewailed his own lot, sometimes the misfortune of the state, and
sometimes complained of "the gods, who had deprived him of such honours
obtained in the field, and the glory of so many victories, who, after he had
taken so many cities, and had defeated the enemy by land and sea, had destroyed
his victorious army, not by war, but by a pestilence. Yet he brought," he
said, "this important consolation to his countrymen, that though the enemy
might rejoice at their ill-success, they could assume no glory from it, as they
could neither say that those who had died were slain by them, nor that those who
had returned had been put to flight. That the plunder which they had taken in
their deserted camp was not whatthey could exhibit as the spoils of
a conquered enemy, but what they had seized, as falling to them for want of
owners, through the accidental deaths of its possessors. That, as far as the
enemy was concerned, they had come off conquerors; as |166
to the pestilence, they were certainly conquered; but that, for himself, he took
nothing more to heart than that he could not die among the brave, and was
reserved, not to enjoy life, but to be the sport of calamity. However, as he had
brought the wretched remains of his army to Carthage, he would follow his fellow
soldiers, and prove to his country that he had not prolonged his life to that
day because he was desirous to live, but that he might not desert by his death,
and abandon to the army of the enemy, those whom the horrible disease had
spared." When he had walked, with such lamentations, through the city, and
had arrived at the entrance to his own house, he dismissed the crowd that
followed him, as if it were the last time that he should speak to them, and
then, locking his door and admitting no one, not even his sons, to his presence,
he put an end to his life.

BOOK XX.

Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, makes an expedition to Magna Graecia;
Greek origin of many people of Italy, I.---- Of Metapontum; Crotona; Locri,
II.----War between Crotona and Locri, III. ---- Pythagoras at Crotona; his
death, IV.----Dionysius attacks Crotona; embassy of the Gauls to him;
settlements of the Gauls in Italy; Dionysius recalled to Sicily; his death,
V.

I. DIONYSIUS, after expelling the Carthaginians from Sicily, and
making himself master of the whole island, thinking that peace might be
dangerous to his power, and idleness in so great an army fatal to it,
transported his forces into Italy; with a wish, at the same time, that the
strength of his soldiers might be invigorated by constant employment, and his
dominions enlarged. His first contest was with the Greeks, who occupied the
nearest parts of the coast on the Italian sea; and, having conquered them, he
attacked their neighbours, looking upon all of Grecian origin who were
inhabitants of Italy, as his enemies; and these settlers had then spread, not
merely through a part of Italy, but through almost the whole of it. Many Italian
cities, indeed, after so long a lapse of time, still exhibit some traces of
Greek manners; for the Etrurians, who occupy the shore of the Tuscan sea, came
from Lydia; and Troy, after it was taken and overthrown, sent thither the Veneti
(whom we see on the coast of the Adriatic), under the |167
leadership of Antenor. Adria, too, which is near the Illyrian sea, and which
gave name also to the Adriatic, is a Greek city; and Diomede, being driven by
shipwreck, after the destruction of Troy, into those parts, built Arpi. Pisae,
likewise, in Liguria, had Grecian founders; and Tarquinii, in Etruria, as well
as Spina in Umbria, has its origin from the Thessalians; Perusia was founded by
the Achaeans. Need I mention Caere?112 Or the
people of Latium, who were settled by Aeneas? Are not the Falisci, are not Nola
and Abella, colonies of the Chalcidians? What is all the country of Campania?
What are the Bruttii 113 and Sabines? What are the
Samnites?114 What are the Tarentines,115
whom we understand to have come from Lacedaemon, and to have been called Spurii?
The city of Thurii they say that Philoctetes built; and his monument is seen
there to this day, as well as the arrows of Hercules, on which the fate of Troy
depended, laid up in the temple of Apollo.

II. The people of Metapontum, too, show in their temple of Minerva,
the iron tools with which Epeus, by whom their city was founded, built the
Trojan horse. Hence all that part of Italy was called Greater Greece.116
But soon after they were settled, the Metapontines, joining with the Sybarites
and Crotonians, formed a design to drive the rest of the Greeks from Italy.
Capturing, in the first place, the city Siris, they slew, as they were storming
it, fifty young men that were embracing the statue of Minerva, and the priest of
the goddess dressed in his robes, between the very altars, suffering, on this
account, from pestilence and civil discord, the Crotonians, first of all,
consulted the oracle at Delphi, and answer was made to them, that "there
would be an end of their troubles, if they appeased the offended deity of
Minerva, and the manes of the slain." After they had begun, accordingly, to
make statues of proper size for the young men, and especially for Minerva, the
Metapontines, learning what the oracle was, and thinking it expedient to
anticipate them |168 in pacifying the
manes of the goddess, erected to the young men smaller images of stone, and
propitiated the goddess with offerings of bread.117
The plague was thus ended in both places, one people showing their zeal by their
magnificence, and the other by their expedition. After they had recovered their
health, the Crotonians were not long disposed to be quiet; and being indignant
that, at the siege of Siris, assistance had been sent against them by the
Locrians, they made war on that people. The Locrians, seized with alarm, had
recourse to the Spartans, begging their assistance with humble entreaties. But
the Spartans, disliking so distant an expedition, told them "to ask
assistance from Castor and Pollux.'' This answer, from a city in alliance with
them, the deputies did not despise, but going into the nearest temple, and
offering sacrifice, they implored aid from those gods. The signs from the
victims appearing favourable, and their request, as they supposed, being
granted, they were no less rejoiced than if they were to carry the gods with
them; and, spreading couches for them in the vessel, and setting out with happy
omens, they brought their countrymen comfort though not assistance.

III. This affair becoming known, the Crotonians themselves also sent
deputies to the oracle at Delphi, asking the way to victory and a prosperous
termination of the war. The answer given was, that "the enemies must be
conquered by vows, before they could be conquered by arms." They
accordingly vowed the tenth of the spoil to Apollo, but the Locrians, getting
information of this vow, and the god's answer, vowed a ninth part, keeping the
matter however secret, that they might not be outdone in vows. When they came
into the field, therefore, and a hundred and twenty thousand Crotonians stood in
arms against them, the Locrians, contemplating the smallness of their own force
(for they had only fifteen thousand men), and abandoning all hope of victory,
devoted themselves to certain death; and such courage, arising out of despair,
was felt by each, that they thought they would be as conquerors, if they did not
fall without avenging themselves. But while they sought only to die with honour,
they had the good fortune to gain the victory; nor was there any other |169
cause of their success but their desperation. While the Locrians were fighting,
an eagle constantly attended on their army, and continued flying about them till
they were conquerors. On the wings, also, were seen two young men fighting in
armour different from that of the rest, of an extraordinary stature, on white
horses and in scarlet cloaks; nor were they visible longer than the battle
lasted. The incredible swiftness of the report of the battle made this wonderful
appearance more remarkable; for on the same day on which it was fought in Italy,
the victory was published at Corinth, Athens, and Lacedaemon.

IV. After this event the Crotonians ceased to exercise their valour,
or to care for distinction in the field. They hated the arms which they had
unsuccessfully taken up, and would have abandoned their former way of life for
one of luxury, had not Pythagoras arisen among them. This philosopher was born
at Samos, the son of Demaratus, a rich merchant, and after being greatly
advanced in wisdom, went first to Egypt, and afterwards to Babylon, to learn the
motions of the stars and study the origin of the universe, and acquired
very great knowledge. Returning from thence, he went to Crete and Lacedaemon, to
instruct himself in the laws of Minos and Lycurgus, which at that time were in
high repute. Furnished with all these attainments, he came to Crotona, and, by
his influence, recalled the people, when they were giving themselves up to
luxury, to the observance of frugality. He used daily to recommend virtue, and
to enumerate the ill effects of luxury, and the misfortunes of states that had
been ruined by its pestilential influence; and he thus produced in the people
such a love of temperance, that it was at length thought incredible that any of
them should be extravagant. He frequently gave instruction to the women apart
from the men, and to the children apart from their parents. He impressed on the
female sex the observance of chastity, and submission to their husbands; on the
rising generation, modesty and devotion to learning. Through his whole course of
instruction he exhorted all to love temperance, as the mother of every virtue;
and he produced such an effect upon them by the constancy of his lectures, that
the women laid aside their vestments embroidered with gold, and other ornaments
and distinctions, as instruments of luxury, and, bringing them |170
into the temple of Juno, consecrated them to the goddess, declaring that
modesty, and not fine apparel, was the true adornment of their sex. How much he
gained upon the yoking men, his victory over the stubborn minds of the women may
serve to indicate. Three hundred of the young men, however, being united by an
oath of fraternity, and living apart from the other citizens, drew the attention
of the city upon them, as if they met for some secret conspiracy; and the
people, when they were all collected in one building, proceeded to burn them in
it. In the tumult about sixty lost their lives; the rest went into exile.

Pythagoras, after living twenty years at Crotona, removed to Metapontum,
where he died; and such was the admiration of the people for his character, that
they made a temple of his house, and worshipped him as a god.

V. Dionysius the tyrant, who, we have said, had transported an army
from Sicily into Italy, and made war upon the Greeks there, proceeded, after
taking Locri by storm, to attack the Crotonians, who, in consequence of their
losses in the former war, were scarcely recovering their strength in a long
peace. With their small force, however, they resisted the great army of
Dionysius more valiantly than they had before, with so many thousands, resisted
the smaller number of the Locrians. So much spirit has weakness in withstanding
insolent power; and so much more sure, at times, is an unexpected than an
expected victory. But as Dionysius was prosecuting the war, ambassadors from the
Gauls, who had burned Rome some months before,118
came to him to desire an alliance and friendship with him; observing that
"their country lay in the midst of his enemies, and could be of great
service to him, either by supporting him in the field, or by annoying his
enemies in the rear when they were engaged with him." The embassy was well
received by Dionysius, who, having made an alliance with them, and being
reinforced with assistance from Gaul, renewed the war as it were afresh.

The causes of the Gauls' coming into Italy, in quest of new settlements, were
civil discords and perpetual contentions at home; and when, from impatience of
those feuds, they had |171 sought
refuge in Italy, they expelled the Tuscans from their country, and founded
Milan,119 Como, Brescia, Verona, Bergamo, Trent,
and Vicenza. The Tuscans, too, when they were driven from their old settlements,
betook themselves, under a captain named Rhaetus, towards the Alps, where they
founded the nation of Rhaetia, so named from their leader.

An invasion of Sicily by the Carthaginians obliged Dionysius to return
thither; for that people, having recruited their army, had resumed the war,
which they had broken off in consequence of the plague, with increased spirit.
The leader in the expedition was Hanno the Carthaginian, whose enemy Juniatus,
the most powerful of the Carthaginians at that time, having, from hatred to him,
given friendly notice to Dionysius, in a letter written in Greek, of the
approach of the army and the inactivity of its leader, was found, through the
letter being intercepted, guilty of treason; and a decree of the senate was
made, "that no Carthaginian should thenceforward study the Greek literature
or language, so that no one might be able to speak with the enemy, or write to
him, without an interpreter." Not long after, Dionysius, whom a little
before neither Sicily nor Italy could hold, being reduced and weakened by
continual wars, was at last killed by a conspiracy among his own subjects.

[Footnotes moved to the end and numbered]

1. * That is, Greece.

2. + So called from Lyncestis, a region bordering on Macedonia, the inhabitants
of which are called Lugkh&stai by Thucydides. Concerning this Alexander, see
Quint. Curt. vii. 1; Diod. Sic. xvii. 32, 80; Arrian, i. 25; Justin, xi. 7; xii.
14.---- Wetzel.

3. ++ Caranum fratrem, &c.] Only his half-brother; he was the
son of Cleopatra, ix. 5, 7.

4. * See vii. 6.

5. + The Aeacidae were the descendants of
Aeacus, the father of Peleus, and grandfather of Achilles, whose son Pyrrhus is
said to have been the first of the kings of Epirus, from whom Olympias,
Alexander's mother, was descended.---- Wetzel. She was the daughter of
Neoptolemus, king of the Molossi. See vii. 6.

6. * Credulitatis.] Tauchnitz's edition has crudelitatis,
by an error, apparently of the press.

7. + That is, Hercules and Bacchus.---- Wetzel.

8. ++ Quorum pretium non ex ementium, commodo, sed
ex inimicorum odio extenditur.] "The greatness of the price asked for
them," saya Berneccerus, "was in proportion to the eagerness with
which they were bought by their enemies." If any one of the purchasers
wished to get an old enemy into his power to torture him as a slave, he offered
a high price for him.

9. * Among whom was Attalus. Compare ch. ii. init.----Wetzel.

10. * Tripudianti similis] The tripudium was
a sort of dance in which the performers beat the earth with their feet in
measured tread. Cicero, de Div. ii. 34, supposes the derivation to be from terra
and pavire: terripavium, terripudium, tripudium. Cicero, indeed, is
here speaking of the corn that fell from the beaks of the sacred chickens when
they were feeding; and Turnebus and others accordingly suppose that his
derivation is confined to that signification of the word, and that the dance is
derived from ter and pes; agreeably to Horace's Gaudet invisam
pepulisse fossor ter pede terram, Od. iii. 18, 15, and Ovid's Et viridem
celeri ter pede pulsat humum, Fast. vi. 329. Compare Lucret. v. 1393. seqq.

11. + Under Alexander and Perdiccas against the
Illyrians.---- Wetzel.

12. ++ Ordines duxit.] A phrase borrowed from
the military affairs of the Romans, among whom ordines ducere meant
"to be a centurion."

22. § Isaac Vossius conjectures Syria, as Cilicia had
been already taken

23. * Very similar to what is said by Agamemnon, ll.
ii., of the comparative numbers of the Greeks and Trojans:

So small their numbers, that if wars were ceas'd,
And Greece triumphant held a gen'ral feast,
All rank'd by tens; whole decads, when they dine,
Must want a Trojan slave to pour the wine.----Pope.

24. * See note on vi. 11.

25. + The Parthians, revolting from the Syrians,
founded a new empire, B.C. 255. See xli. 4.---- Wetzel.

26. * Luxuria destructa.] Graevius, not knowing
what to make of destructa, conjectures restricted. Wetzel explains
the words thus: "Lest, as the empire of the Persians was destroyed, the
luxury of the Persians should seem also to be destroyed." I incline
to think with Graevius that the word is corrupt.

27. * That is, with a kind of prostration. See Corn.
Nep. Con. c. 3; Justin, vi. 2. Proskune/ein to_n
basile/a prospi/ptontaj,Herod. vii. 136; see also i. 134. On
the question about paying adoration to Alexander, see Arrian, iv. 11.

28. + Explosa.] Scheffer conjectures expulsa,
which Lemaire approves.

29. ++ From a!rguroj,
silver, and a)spi\j,a shield.

30. § Montes Daedalos.] Quintus Curtius, viii.
10, has Regio quae Daedala vocatur; but there is no allusion to the name
in any other author.

40. * Sub Aristotele doctore inclyto [omnium
philosophorum]. The words in brackets, condemned by Faber, Scheffer, and
Wetzel, I have omitted in the translation. They are unsatisfactory, both as
regards sense and construction; for if we connect them with doctore, we
make Justin say what was not true; and if with inclyto, we give that
adjective a government to which it has no right.

41. * She survived the death of Darius, and killed
herself on that of Alexander.

43. * Cleomenes had indeed authority in Africa and
Europe, but it was only over the revenues; and it was not he that built
Alexandria, but Dinocrates. Hence I conjecture that there is some deficiency in
the text.----Scheffer. See Val. Max. i. 5; Q. Curt. iv. 8, 9; Plin. H. N.
vii. 38.

45. + We must read quo civitatem impelleret, with
Freinshemius, Vorstius, and Lemaire.

46. * Pulso hoste.] The word pulso is
inconsistent with what is said just above, that the enemy "marched
away," concessit, of their own accord.

47. + Alexander of Epirus. See ix. 6.

48. * His posthumous son by Roxane, called Alexander
Aegus. See xii, 15, xiii. 2.

49. * Solstitiales ortus sideris.] Aristaeus
first observed the risings of Sirius or the dog-star, and taught the Ceans to
watch them and sacrifice to it. This is the general account, and that Justin may
agree with it, I think that we should read solstitialis ortus sideris. By
solstitiale sidus, I think that Sirius is meant, because it rises soon
after the solstice.----Salmasius.

50. * The word agnito, which Faber, Scheffer,
and Lemaire unite in condemning, I have not translated.

51. + This is a mistake, for Justin, xiv. 5, speaks of
him as being alive. Bongarsius and others have supposed that Justin wrote Cratertus
instead of Polysperchon, but it seems to be otherwise, for Orosius
iiii. 23, who follows Justin, has the same account of Polysperchon's death. That
it was Craterus who was killed, and not Polysperchon, appears from Corn. Nep.
Eum. c. 4. See also Plut. Eum. c. 9; Diod. Sic. xviii. 38.

52. ++ By his own cavalry, when he wanted to cross the
Nile; Diod. Sic. xviii; 33-37.----Wetzel.

53. * So stands the name in Wetzel's text, and in most
others, except that of Tauchnitz, which has Aeolia, the conjecture of Glareanus.
But Isaac Vossius conjectures Aetulane, from a passage of Ptolemy, who
gives that name to a part of Armenia Minor, lying to the north-east of
Cappadocia. Vossius's suggestion is approved by Vorstius and Faber.

54. * Auctor cladis.] Inasmuch as he had
impelled them to take the field ---- Wetzel.

55. + The Argyraspides were veterans, and some of
them, doubtless, had sons in the army to which they were now opposed.

56. * Eumenes, and those who adhered to him; those few
with whom he afterwards attempted to escape.

57. + Their wives, children, and money.

58. ++ Quater.] Three times, says Cornelius
Nepos in his life of Eumenes.----Bongarsius. Perhaps we should here read qui
ter.----Berneccerus.

59. § Namely, to die.

60. * This is quite at variance with Justin's account
of Alexander's death.

63. § Auxilia Orientalia.] The Persian
soldiers that had been in Alexander's army.

64. * Fortuna majestatis prioris.

65. + Wetzel's text has, Insuper expirans capillis
et veste crura contexisse fertur. Some manuscripts, as Graevius and Scheffer
state, have compsisse imsuper expirans capillos et veste crura, &c.,
which I have followed; for as Graevius and others ask, how could she cover her
feet with her hair? Scheffer conjectures cooperuisse capillis os; Grsevius,
papillas veste et crura contexisse: but both these attempts are inferior
to the reading compsisse, &c.

66. ++ Alexander Aegus, with his mother Roxane.

67. * Near Gaza. Diod. Sic. xix. 84.---- Wetzel.

68. * Wetzel, in his text, has the old reading Abderitas,
but expresses himself, in his notes, in favour of Freinshemius's conjecture,
Antariatas, from Diodor. Sic. xx. 19, and Athen. viii. 2; which Graevius
adopted. The Antariatae bordered on Dardania and Paeonia. See Strabo, lib. xix.
The inhabitants of the island of Gyarus are also said by Pliny, H. N. viii. 43,
to have been driven from their country by mice; also those of Troas, x. 85.

69. + Sepulturâ.] That is, by burning the
bodies on a funeral pile.----Wetzel.

70. ++ See xii. 14.

71. § Cum Demetrio navali proelio iterato
congreditur.] "There was," says Scheffer, "no previous battle
by sea, as is apparent from Diod. Sic. lib. xix.; and the adverb iterato is,
therefore, to be referred, not to proelio, but to congreditur. He
had engaged with Demetrius previously by land; he now engages him a
second time by sea."

72. || See c. 1, sub fin.

73. * A foolish observation. Did Justin or Trogus
suppose that friendships were better observed in the days of Cassander and
Demetrius than in his own?

77. * Veluti domita mansuetudine stands in
Wetzel's text, and I believe in all others. Scheffer asks whether there is mansuetudo
not domita. Dübner, the editor of a small edition with French notes
(Par. 18mo. 1847), says that Cuper, de Elephantis, p. 47, proposes to
read domitus ad mansuetudinem.

78. *At Ipsus in Phrygia.

79. + Philip died in the same year with Cassander,
B.c. 297. Concern« tog Thesaalonice, see xiv. 6, and Diod. Sie. xxi. Fragm.
10.---- Wetzel.

80. * Antigonus.

81. * King of Pontus, father of the Great Mithridates.

82. * Kerauno&j,
thunder.

83. * Ad tyrannum.] The words veluti ad
regem, which follow tyrannum, and which Wetzel condemns as a gloss,
are omitted from the translation. He also condemns the preceding veluti
clientes; but for this I see no necessity.

84. + The Chersonesus Taurica; now the Crimea.

85. * Orbem terrarum duo soli tenerent.] A
great exaggeration. Seleucus had Upper Asia and Syria; Lysimachus Thrace,
Greece, Macedonia, and several provinces of Asia Minor. The dominions of Ptolemy
Philadelphus were therefore much more extensive.---- Wetzel.

86. + De cohorte Alexandra.

87. ++ Ptolemy Ceraunus, the eldest son of Ptolemy
Lagus, and brother of Ptolemy Philadelphus; xvi. 2. His mother's name was
Eurydice; that of Philadelphus's mother Berenice, Pausan. i. 6, 8.---- Wetzel.

88. * The sister of Ptolemy. See the Index.

89. + Seleucus, the enemy of Ptolemy Lagus, xv. 4.

90. ++ Wetzel retains Eumeni in his text,
though Gronovius had seen that the passage must be thus read: Omnique arte
adulatur Nicomedi, ne cùm Antigono Demetrii, Antiocho Seleuci filiis bellum
habituro, tertius sibi hostis accederet. This emendation is approved by
Graevius, Vorstius, Scheffer, and Faber. The Antigonus here mentioned is Antigonus
Gonnatas, and the Antiochus Antiochus Soter, the successor of
Seleucus.

91. § He had, however, mentioned it before, as Wetzel
observes, xvi. 2.

92. * Phthia in Thessaly.

93. + The words atque, ita, which precede Heleno
in the text, are not expressed in the translation; for the giving of the
kingdom and the wife to Helenus could hardly have been consequent on the
marriages of Pyrrhus's daughters by Lanassa; or Andromache must have been very
old when Helenus took her. On this subject, see Virg. Aen. iii. 294.

94. * As having been sent to Pyrrhus by Ptolemy
Ceraunus, king of Macedonia, xvii. 2.

95. * Nam Romanis eadem causa mittendi auxilii
Carthaginiensibus fuit, &c.] Berneccerus and Vorstius think that this
passage requires correction. Scheffer supposes that some words are lost, as
there is nothing to which eadem can be referred.

96. + Assyrium stagnum.] Assyrium for Syrium.----Glareanus.
He means the lake of Gennesaret.----Bongarsius: with whom Berneccerus
and Faber agree.

97. * Ascaloniorum.] Inhabitants of Ascalon,
between Azotus and Gaza.

98. * It does not appear how they were deprived of
it.

99. + Called by Virgil Sichaeus. Servius thinks
that the real name was Sicharbas, which Faber would insert in Justin's
text.

101. + Four old editions have Mauritania two
manuscripts Mauri.----Wetzel

102. * There is a strange variety of opinions among
authors as to the time when this city was founded. Some make it thirty years
prior to the Trojan war, as Philistas in Eusebius, or fifty, as Appian,
both of whom deny that Dido was the founder of it; some say that it was founded
after Troy was taken, but before the building of Rome; but, do not agree as to
the number of years. Vell. Paterculus, i. 6, makea it fifty-six years
older than Rome; Livy, Epit. li., says that it stood seven hundred years, and
was destroyed A.U.C. 607; a calculation which makes it ninety-three years
older than Rome.----Lemaire, See also Bongarsius and Berneccerus.

103. * Wetzel has the name Maleus in his text,
but favours Malchus, a conjecture of Is. Vossius, in his note.

104. + Publicae religionis officia.] The
public payment of his vows for his safe return.---- Wetzel.

105. * Auctoribus miserorum civium is the
reading of all the texts, but cannot be right. Faber conjectures auctoribus
miseriarum civilium, which I have adopted. Vorstius proposed miseries
civiitm; and Vossius observes that "doctissimus Peyraredus" read misertum
civium, which Vossius himself approved, but which certainly cannot be
adopted unless further changes are made in the context.

106. * He calls a Carthaginian office by a Roman
name. Suffetes was the Punic word for their two chief magistrates. As for
triumphal processions, the Africans, according to Servius, Aen. iv. 37,
were the first people that had them, long before they were introduced at Rome.

107. * Mortuorumque corpora cremare potius quam,
terra obruere, à rege jubebantur.] As the Persians did not burn, but
bury, the bodies of the dead, thinking that fire was polluted by corpses,
Freinshemius, on Curt. ii. 13, 15, would reject the words à rege jubebantur,
and make the infinitives cremare and obruere depend on prohibebantur,
which precedes; so that the sense may be, "they were forbidden to burn
the dead rather than bury them in the earth;" that is, they were commanded
to bury rather than burn them. Whoever thinks this construction harsh, may
perhaps be better pleased with the correction of Gronovius, mortuorumque
corpora cremare [prohibebantur] quae potius terra obruere à rege
jubebantur.----Lemaire. But Gronovius's construction is not less harsh than
that of Freinshemius. Kirchmann, de Fun. Rom. i. 2, would make cremare and
obruere change places; an alteration which Berneccerus and Vorstius
approve. But perhaps Justin or Trogus merely made a mistake.

108. + He was prevented by death. See ii. 10.

109. ++ A name that does not occur in any other
author. It is perhaps corrupt. In one manuscript it was written Sapho. Should
we read Psapho? This certainly is a Punic name. See the
"Proverbs" of Apostolius and the "Apophthegms" of
Arsenius.---- Vossius. Vossius's emendation is approved by Graevius,
Scheffer, Faber, and Wetzel.

110. § Imperia agitarent.] I read agitarent
with Bongarsius, Berneccerus, Vorstius, and Faber, not cogitarent, which
is in the oldest editions The alteration, says Bongarsius, was made by G. Major.

111. * Pestilentus sideris.] The disease was
thought to have been an infliction from heaven on the Carthaginians, because
they had plundered the temples of Ceres and Proserpine. See Diod. Sic. xiv.
70-72.

112. * It is said by Strabo to have been settled by
the Pelasgi.

113. + They are said to have sprung from the
Lucanians, xxiii. 1, and on the coast of Lucania were many Greek towns.

114. ++ I know not why he intimates that either of
these peoples were of Greek origin. Strabo regards the Sabines as autochthones
of Italy.

115. § See iii. 4.

116. || Major Graecia, or more commonly Magna
Graecia, Great Greece.

117. * Panificiis.] We might, with
Ostertagius, read pannificiis (cloths or garments), which were more
appropriate to Minerva ---- Wetzel.

118. * Ante menses.] As a number seems to be
wanting, Scheffer would read ante menses sex, taking the last word from
Florus, i. 13. Vossius would read ante mensem. But the longer period
seems the more eligible.

119. * I have given the modern names. The ancient
were Mediolanum, Comum, Brixia, Verona, Bergomum, Tridentum, Vicentia.

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